What Does it Mean to “Press Charges” in Massachusetts?

If you’re looking to move forward in pressing charges against someone, calling an attorney’s office is not a step that is involved in the process. Private criminal attorneys are defense attorneys – lawyers that people hire to defend them against criminal charges in court. The attorneys that prosecute criminal charges are attorneys who work for the District Attorney’s office (DA’s office) and they work on behalf of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and are a government agency. When someone chooses to “press charges” against another person, if the criminal charges move forward, it is really the state of Massachusetts that is moving the charges along and prosecuting the defendant.

In order to start a criminal case against someone (when the police have not yet been involved), you must:

• Go to the police station in the city/town closest to where the incident occurred
• Get a Police Incident Report form and complete the form
• Submit the form to the police station
• Take a copy of the completed Incident Report form to the court that is closest to where the incident occurred
• Complete an application for criminal complaint
• Attend a hearing at the courthouse for the judge to determine whether or not to move forward in filing the criminal complaint

Keep in mind that the steps above will look different if the police had already been involved. For example, if an incident occurred, and you called the police, you will be asked if you’d like to file a police report and make a statement at that time. The above steps for “pressing charges” are only followed if you did not call the police to the scene of the incident when it first occurred.