Massachusetts is a no-fault state, which changes the first question in a car accident case from who was to blame to how large the medical bills are. Compare Boston firms on what they publish and on what we could check for ourselves.
Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers works from One International Place and names 21 people. It is one of the few firms in this market that publishes a fee statement as well as a contingency promise, and it publishes every trust page pillar D looks for.
Sweeney Merrigan works from Summer Street in Fort Point and names 18 people. Its own description claims more than $250 million recovered, which is the firm's figure and not one this directory has confirmed, so no amount appears on this profile.
Jason Stone Injury Lawyers holds five verified offices around Greater Boston, the most of any firm in this ranking, and names 32 people. Contingency fees, a free consultation and a 24 hour line, published.
In most of the country a car accident claim goes to the other driver’s insurer. In Massachusetts it starts with your own: personal injury protection pays the first part of the medical bills whoever caused the crash, and a claim for pain and suffering is barred outright unless the injury clears a threshold. The Appeals Court put the figure plainly in Chenell v. Central Wheelchair & Van Transport in 2018: medical expenses have to exceed $2,000 under General Laws chapter 231, section 6D, and the threshold is met without that sum where the injury is a fracture, permanent and serious disfigurement, or loss of sight or hearing. It means two people hurt in the same collision can have very different cases, and it is worth asking a firm early where your bills stand against it.
Blame is then shared rather than fatal. Massachusetts recovery survives the plaintiff’s own carelessness as long as it was not greater than the defendant’s, under chapter 231, section 85, and the award is reduced by the share. That is the ordinary American rule and the opposite of what happens fifty miles down the coast: Maryland, where this directory also ranks firms, still ends a claim entirely when the injured person contributed to it at all.
Where a case is heard depends on its size and its subject. Larger civil claims in the city go to the Superior Court for Suffolk County, smaller ones to the Boston Municipal Court or a District Court, and federal matters to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Cambridge and Somerville are Middlesex County and Quincy is Norfolk, so a firm two stops away on the Red Line may be appearing in a different courthouse from the one that will hear your case.