Guy loses his FID card for over two years and finally gets it back

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Here are the details:

The Single Justice Session (Botsford, J.) has decided in favor of Applicant/Petitioner Arthur Serino, overturning the Quincy Police Department's refusal to act on his application for an FID Card, and the TWO refusals by the Quincy District Court (Coven, J.) to apply and enforce the controlling statute:

Memorandum and Order: ... "It is ordered that the motion of the Justices of the Quincy Division of the District Court Department to be named as a nominal party be allowed. It is further ordered that the petition for certiorari be allowed, and the order denying the petition for review, dated July 24, 2014, and issued by a judge of the Quincy District Court, is reversed. The case is remanded to to the Quincy District Court for entry of an order allowing the petition for review, and directing the chief of police to issue the petitioner an FID card pursuant to G. L. c. 140, § 129B, as in effect at the time the petitioner's application was filed." (Botsford, J.)

Time line for this case:

Application filed Dec., 2013
Petition for Review filed April 28, 2014
Hearing in Quincy Dist. Ct. July 16, 2014 (petition denied)
Motion for Reconsideration based upon advisory memo from District Courts Chief Justice Dawley heard Sept. 17, 2014 (motion summarily denied)
Petition for Certiorari filed Nov. 3, 2014 (11 months after initial FID application)
Oral argument (after 2 snow delays) March 30, 2015
Decision entered June 8, 2015.

Which is to say, it took a year and a half, three hearings, and a few thousand dollars for a citizen to obtain the license he was entitled to, in the Chief Justice's twice-issued phrase, "as of right."

Here is a link to the case
http://www.ma-appellatecourts.org/display_docket.php?dno=SJ-2014-0454
 
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H.4376 ensures that nobody will sue to get their FID processed in the future

No need to worry, MA fixed this last year when Governor Pat signed H.4376 [wink]
 
Well done, Keith. Thanks for keeping our elected officials and public servants on their toes.
 
Excellent outcome eventually but terrible news. The facts that this took so long and that is required in the first place is an atrocity. The additional facts that a scumbag Quincy District Court judge originally ruled otherwise is also an atrocity.

And link as to the facts of this specific case?
 
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