Review of Summary Process Actions in Housing Courts Statewide in 2011 and 2014

Over the past 25 years, the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute has compiled four surveys of residential summary process (eviction) cases in Housing and District courts throughout Massachusetts.

As policy makers consider legislation to expand the Housing Court Department statewide and other legislation that impacts the eviction process, we updated this survey by reviewing publicly accessible data from the Housing Court Department. The analysis surveyed a total of 54,528 cases, all eviction cases filed in the Housing Court Department in:

• 2011 (26,648 eviction cases) and
• 2014 (27,880 eviction cases).

The results of this updated survey are consistent with previous surveys: evictions move quickly, landlords are represented far more often than tenants, and landlords generally win their cases.