Recent Cases

What clients are saying and results:

• August 2011 – Assault and Battery - Dismissed - RS
  

• July 2011 - Tenant "Allegedly" Causes estimated $12K in damages to apartment. Landlord goes to evict, we counterclaim and go to court. Eventually we reach a settlement with Landlord; Tenant walks away with money !!! ZM

• May 2011 – "I couldn’t have done it without Attorney Bull" – Assault and Battery charge dismissed at Clerk’s hearing, restraining order stopped after hearing in front of Judge. - BB

• May 2011 – I cannot thank you enough for all your help. I was really scared I was going to jail, and you kept me out of jail - thank you again - RS

• May 2011 – I’m very very thankful for all the help Attorney Bull gave me – Landlord tenant-Bedbug case - MS

This is one of my favorite cases, as it illustrates what can be accomplished when your attorney knows the law.

FACTS: Landlord Tenant Case - 2011

Tenant moves into a 2nd floor apartment with her 2 young kids (4yrs old). They are typical kids and love to run around the house and have fun. Well, Mr. Landlord has a tenant living on the first floor who doesn't appreciate the fact that the kids are running around and complains to the landlord. The tenant on the first floor also gets section 8 housing vouchers to help pay for her rent and the landlord becomes afraid she will complain to the housing authority and he'll lose her as a tenant (and that section 8 money).

Landlord files a summary process complaint to evict. The tenant calls my office and after meeting her I come up with a laundry list of problems tenant may be able to get compensation for, including :

1. Apartment had no heat during part of the fall/winter months
2. Tenant called Board of Health (BOH) to complain, BOH finds a number of problems with the apartment
3. The eviction appeared to be in retaliation for tenants calling the board of health and other authorities
4. The tenancy was not properly terminated - thus landlord could not file eviction paper work
5. Breach of the Implied Warranty of in-habitability
6. Breach of Covenant of Quiet Enjoyment
7. Violation of Consumer protection Law
8. Violation of Excessive Deposit Law
9. Violation of Late Fee Law
10. Intentional Inflection of Emotion Distress
11. Landlord was not authorized to practice law in the state of Massachusetts, thus he couldn't file the eviction.

Then the fun started. Everything was on our side, and it appeared the landlord had very few defenses.

Then there was a flood in the tenant's apartment ... The water flooded the Section 8 neighbor below and caused the kitchen ceiling to collapse; damaged was estimated at over $12,000 !!!

Though the landlord now had some counter claims against the tenant, all was not lost.

We still went to court - and because I knew he had not followed all the rules for filing the eviction (nor was he authorized to practice law in Massachusetts), I filed a motion to dismiss his claims - meaning he'd have to start all over with the eviction, while all of the tenant's counter-claims remained... He didn't want this... We were able to come up with a settlement and the client/tenant was able to get a very good money settlement ($X,000) and the damage to the apartment was settled as well with the tenant paying NOTHING.

Morale of the story : Always have an experienced lawyer represent you. This tenant went from being evicted and owing $12,000, to leaving on her own terms and walking away with money.

As always, Past Results Are No Indication Of Future Performance. If you have a legal problem, you'll usually get better results if you hire an attorney.

Call my office for a FREE consultation if you have a legal problem...