In May 2015, the court will begin distributing juror questionnaires electronically via ECF to attorneys in those cases scheduled for trial and which do not involve any pro se parties. The questionnaires will be electronically distributed six (6) days in advance of jury selection. Any additional or supplemental questionnaires the court receives by the Friday before jury selection will be electronically distributed to attorneys by the end of business on that Friday.
The First Circuit Court of Appeals is seeking applicants for a bankruptcy judge position for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts in Worcester. Attorneys with broad or specialized litigation or commercial experience are encouraged to apply, whether or not such experience is in bankruptcy law. Interested applicants may obtain an application from the Circuit Executive's Office, from the Bankruptcy Court Clerk for the District of Massachusetts, or by accessing the Court of Appeals' website at www.ca1.uscourts.gov.
The court has been upgrading its courtroom technology and will be hosting brown bag lunches in late February and early March where court personnel will demo the new technology, outline best practices for using it, and allow attendees to test the new system using their own laptops/tablets. Preregistration is not required. For an invitation with training dates and more details, please click here.
Recently, Concord, NH area residents have been contacted by a person from a fictitious agency that they refer to as the Federal Warrant Service. The caller identifies himself or herself as a high ranking officer and that the recipient of the call has a warrant for failing to appear for federal jury duty. The caller would give the “wanted person” the option of paying upwards of $650 plus a $150 processing fee to avoid the warrant service. If the “wanted person” did not comply with the payment request, they were told that agents would be coming to their homes to arrest them.
Effective January 1, 2015, the court adopted a policy regarding the destruction of documents that are filed with the court in paper form. Paper documents filed conventionally with the court will be scanned and uploaded into ECF unless the document's size or nature require that it be maintained in paper form. All paper documents that are scanned and uploaded into ECF will be destroyed one year after the date of filing. Any party desiring to retain the original paper document or have the court retain such document, may seek such relief by filing a motion with the court.
Effective December 15, 2014, parties in certain reentry after deportation cases may request that an expedited plea and sentencing hearing be scheduled in connection with the filing of either a fully executed final plea agreement or executed acknowledgement and waiver of rights form.
On November 3, 2014, the court adopted a new policy in criminal cases regarding proposed Sentencing Options and Supervision Conditions. Pursuant to the policy, the USP will be filing and providing to the parties in advance of sentencing its proposed Sentencing Options and Supervision Conditions.
The court will hold its next joint bar admissions ceremony with the New Hampshire Supreme Court on Monday, November 17, 2014, at the Warren B. Rudman Courthouse. Eligible candidates will be sworn into both the bar of the New Hampshire Supreme Court and the bar of the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire. Candidates with last names beginning with A through K will be admitted at 9:30 a.m. (ceremony preceded by reception at 8:45 a.m.), and candidates with last names beginning with L through Z will be admitted at 11:30 a.m.
A number of federal district courts across the United States are reporting that citizens are being targeted by a juror phishing email that asks recipients to provide personal identifiers (SSN, DOB, mother’s maiden name, etc.) on an attached PDF form. Recently, we learned of another scam involving phony arrest warrants. These emails may tell recipients that to avoid arrest for money laundering, bank fraud, or missed jury duty, they must send money.
You’ve received a warrant by fax or email saying a federal law enforcement officer or an attorney for the government wants to arrest you. Charges may be for money laundering or bank fraud, or missed jury duty. To avoid arrest, the warrant says, send money.
This is a scam.
The warrant may display a bogus logo of an unspecified “United States District Court,” a case number, and various charges. Typically, recipients are instructed to call a number to get a “settlement” or to wire money to avoid arrest.
Welcome to the court's new website. In addition to streamlining, reorganizing and updating the information offered on the site, we have added several new features to enhance your use of it. Those new features include a new opinion search function for our local opinions that is accessible under the Quick Links section on the home page, as well as retooled local rules and CJA reference manual sections that are more easy to navigate and print.
If you previously were subscribed to the court's listserv to receive court news, civil opinions, criminal opinions, and/or First Circuit opinions, you should continue to be subscribed to receive those items through our new website. We discontinued the following lists: CJA, court announcements, local rules, published opinions and weather. Information on the discontinued lists will be announced through the existing "news" list. If you would like to subscribe to one of the court's lists or review the status of your subscriptions, you may do so using the Subscription Service link in the Quick
In developing and designing the new website, the court was very fortunate to have input from several of our practitioners: Andrew Schulman, Richard Guerriero, John Shirley, Kevin O'Shea, Nick Abramson and Cori Palmer. Thank you very much for your valuable assistance.
The Court is pleased to announce that it has selected Attorney Andrea K. Johnstone to serve as the new full-time Magistrate Judge for the District of New Hampshire. It is anticipated that Attorney Johnstone will begin her term of service in late June.