In 2014 voters in the Commonwealth approved a ballot measure that created the Massachusetts Earned Sick Time Law (G.L.c. 149 § 148C) (MESTL), which guarantees most Massachusetts workers up to 40 hours of earned sick time per year. Last month the coverage of the law expanded to cover physical and…
This week, the Supreme Judicial Court will hear argument in Commonwealth v. Andrade, a case in which I wrote an amicus brief on behalf of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. This case addresses an important question about what evidence a criminal defendant can introduce to argue that they…
Attorney Ana Muñoz spoke to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly this week about the SJC’s decision in Patel et al. v. 7-11 Inc., et al. The Court answered a certified question from the First Circuit about how to address claims by franchisees that they have been misclassified as independent contractors. Muñoz, who…
As we recently wrote, states’ firearms regulations have faced legal challenges across the country since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which held that individuals have a Second Amendment right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense. But how…
In 2018, Richard Dilworth was charged with a variety of firearms offenses after an officer from Boston Police Department’s gang unit sent him a friend request on Snapchat under a false identity and viewed Dilworth’s videos showing what appeared to be guns. In 2022, a judge dismissed the case after…
Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP is proud to announce that the following attorneys are listed in the 2025 edition of Best Lawyers in America. Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession and rates attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which tens of…
The Biden administration’s new Title IX regulations were scheduled to go into force on August 1 of this year, but have already come under legal attack. We’ve previously covered two successful legal challenges that enjoined the enforcement of the new regulations in certain states. This week, however, other opponents of…
Last month distribution of “revenge porn” – nude or sexually explicit photos or videos shared online without the consent of the person pictured – became a criminal offense in Massachusetts, as part of a bill aimed at protecting victims of abuse The Commonwealth became the second-to-last state in the country…
While the DOC has a rehabilitative mission on paper, it has a reputation for violating the civil rights of its incarcerated population and discriminating and retaliating against its employees. Ten years ago, Zalkind Law sued the DOC for discrimination because the DOC paid a female deputy superintendent significantly less than…
Title IX, passed by Congress over fifty years ago as part of the Educational Amendments of 1972, begins with a deceptively simple sentence: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination…