Massachusetts Dangerousness Hearings

A dangerousness hearing is when the Commonwealth requests a judge to hold a defendant without bail for up to ninety days. The Commonwealth must show the following to establish the following elements:

The extent to which dangerousness hearing are used throughout Massachusetts varies from county to county. Dangerousness hearings are aggressively used in Bristol County. Additionally, many district attorneys will request dangerousness hearings on OUI offenses, above a 4th offense. The district attorneys in Newburyport will even typically request a dangerousness hearing on a 3rd offense OUI. When a dangerousness hearing is requested, a defendant could be held for a period of time, between 3 to 7 days, pending the scheduling of the dangerousness hearing. A Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer can argue that the court should not even schedule the matter for a dangerousness hearing. Accordingly, it is important to hire an experienced Massachusetts criminal defense lawyer immediately to present being detained without bail.