Concord Dispatch – Legal News

Driving Behavior Can Be Caused by Many Factors Unrelated to Alcohol
Dudley Goar, Attorney at Law

Police officers are often required to make difficult decisions with incomplete information when they arrest someone for OUI. When they pull over a driver and have a suspicion that the driver may have consumed alcohol, they need to determine whether there is probable cause that the driver is “under the influence” (OUI) in a legal…

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Police Body Cameras Are Game Changer for OUI Cases
Dudley Goar, Attorney at Law

Police departments in Concord, Massachusetts and several nearby towns now use body cameras and dashboard mounted cameras to record interactions with motorists. This represents an extremely important development in the way that OUI cases are handled by prosecutors and defense attorneys. Previously, OUI defendants were stuck with the police officer’s account of the interaction in…

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S.J.C. Clarifies Use of Field Sobriety Tests in OUI Drugs Cases
Dudley Goar, Attorney at Law

In Commonwealth v. Gerhardt, 477 Mass. 775 (2017), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court was asked to decide whether the Commonwealth may introduce evidence of a defendant’s performance on standardized field sobriety tests (FSTs) in a case in which the defendant is charged with driving under the influence of marijuana. The Court held that to the…

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Sealing Criminal Record After Dismissal Now Easier
Dudley Goar, Attorney at Law

In a recent case, Commonwealth v. Pon (No. SJC-11542), the Supreme Judicial Court announced a new lowerstandard for sealing anindividual’s criminal record (“CORI”) with respect to a charge that was dismissed. Under the statute, G.L. c 276, §100C, a former criminal defendant was entitled to have the record of a criminal charge that resulted in…

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Spoliation of Evidence Warrants Sanctions But Not Summary Judgment
Dudley Goar, Attorney at Law

Lawyers Weekly has reported that, in a products liability case brought in Massachusetts federal court by an insurance company on behalf of its insured against the manufacturer of a leaky water heater, a judge ruled that the disposal (“spoliation”) of the water heater before the manufacturer had an opportunity to test it did not call…

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Insurance Company is Hit With Punitive Damage Award After Refusing to Settle Personal Injury Case
Dudley Goar, Attorney at Law

In Anderson et al. v. American International Group, Inc. et al., a Superior Court judge found the insurance company AIG liable for treble damages and attorney’s fees under chapters 93A and 176D after it refused to settle a case in which the liability of its insured, the driver of a shuttle bus, was clear. The…

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Description of Car Does Not Have to Match Perfectly to Give Police Reasonable Suspicion for Stop
Dudley Goar, Attorney at Law

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (S.J.C.) reversed a district court judge’s order suppressing the stop of a motor vehicle by police in the caseComm. v. Rohena. The district court judge had ruled that the police did not have “reasonable suspicion” to stop the car, because a 911 caller had identified a black car of a…

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Be Careful with Emails and Texts
Dudley Goar, Attorney at Law

An article in the January 13, 2014 edition of Mass. Lawyer’s Weekly highlights the growing acceptance by courts that emails can be given the same weight as letters or other documents when it comes to contract enforcement. For example, an email might be sufficient to bind a party to an unsigned purchase and sale agreement…

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Client Reviews

Dudley exceeded my expectations... and came prepared with pictures and information that resulted in us winning the case. I would recommend him to anyone looking for a professional and caring attorney.

M.R.

I have no words to explain my gratitude for Mr Dudley. He is been my attorney for 3 years and did excellent work to help me out from "OUI" & family case. I would definitely recommend him. He was always there to guide me.

Y.J.

Attorney Goar defended me in a criminal case in which I had been falsely accused of a crime by my business competitors. He was successful in getting the criminal case dismissed and then represented me in a civil case against the people who had falsely accused me. Thanks to Attorney Goar I cleared...

P.J.

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