Segal Constable
Services
Segal Constable
Services
Serving Legal Process in All of Massachusetts
Can Provide Service Virtually Anywhere in the US
Thru State and National Networks of Constables/Process Servers
Northeast Shooters Training - Great defensive handgun training by nationally/internationally renowned trainers. Reasonably priced and held in the Nashua NH area. Check out the schedule on this link. If you carry a firearm while serving process or making arrests, you can't afford to do so without proper DEFENSIVE training (very different from target shooting). [Personal Note: Nothing that I learned in 28 years of target shooting or 18 years of qualifying with the local police department/MCJTC (now called MPTC) was useful in defensive tactics! What I learned from one 3-day class with Jim Crews in 2004 was eye-opening and some of it is useful in target shooting as well.]
The Constables Office, Chicopee, MA - Scott provides the only good Constable training in MA, as well as a superb software product to run your Constable business. HIGHLY recommended, from personal experience.
MCA Municipal Fee Payment Report (NOTE: Password Required, MCA Members ONLY) - rev. 4/16/04
The General Laws are available online at http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/Index.htm
Police and Law Enforcement - http://www.policeone.com/
Legal Dictionary - law.com Dictionary
New England's Best Shooting Forum for those into the shooting sports or improving their survivorship skills in law enforcement.
Jesse Cohen - Most effective firearms law attorney in Mass! jesse@attorneycohen.com
ALWAYS SEARCH PRISONERS THOROUGHLY! There is a lesson to be learned here.
Rule #1 in law enforcement work: Always go home ALIVE at the end of the day.
This video is of a prisoner shooting himself in the head. If this offends anyone (it is not gory), don't bother viewing it.
CA Suspect Suicide in Cell (Windows Media file)
Calif. Suspect Kills Self in Custody
Associated Press
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - A motorist arrested for shooting a deputy committed suicide at sheriff's headquarters with a handgun he had in his front pants pocket, authorities said. [ed note: It was not in his pocket, he takes it from his waistband.]
..
.
Authorities said they did not know why Cerna's gun wasn't found when deputies arrested him.
"He was able to hide the weapon on his body," sheriff's Lt. Rick Carr said. "The officers, when they made the arrest, did not discover the weapon.".
.
.
-------------------------------------
From Dan Matthews (Norfolk Registry of Deeds and guest speaker at the MCA June 2004 meeting) regarding MA Notary requirements (new-5/04):
Two reputable sources for journals are:
- Mass Lawyers Weekly which has paired up with the Real Estate Bar Association (REBA - formerly Mass. Conveyancers Assn.) to produce a Massachusetts-compatible journal, see:
http://books.lawyersweekly.com/results_books.cfm
- Lawyers Stationery Co., Boston, see:
http://www.lawyersstationery.com/notary_supplies.html
Follow-up from
Dan Matthews (Norfolk Registry of Deeds) talk to the Mass Constables Assn (June
2004) about
the new Notary requirements:
Following up on two questions left from the seminar:
- Fees:The position of the governor's legal office is that the maximum notary fee is $1.25 unless otherwise provided by MGL Ch. 262 sec. 41. This opinion is based on construction of the last clause of section 41 (emphasis added below) as establishing $1.25 as the fee for all notarial acts other than those set elsewhere in section 41.
That is a doubtful reading of section 41, a statute adopted in 1839 to set fees for certain fees regarding non-payment of commercial instruments. The governor's legal office seems to concede as much, and suggests that the legislature may act on this question.
Nevertheless, the Governor's new notary application contains the following paragraph:“4. A notary public may only charge the amount set forth in statute for performing a notarization. It is the notary public's responsibility to know the proper amount to charge. In no case may a notary public charge more than the statutory amount.”
This writer's view is that the governor's interpretation is incorrect, but this writer is not the appointing authority for notaries. It may be that the governor's office hopes this issue will be resolved by the legislature or not become an issue at all because so few notaries charge for simple notarizations.
The statute text:
Chapter 262: Section 41 Enumeration of fees
Section 41. The fees of notaries public shall be as follows:
For the protest of a bill of exchange, order, draft or check for non-acceptance or non-payment, or of a promissory note for non-payment, if the amount thereof is five hundred dollars or more, one dollar; if it is less than five hundred dollars, fifty cents; for recording the same, fifty cents; for noting the non-acceptance or non-payment of a bill of exchange, order, draft or check or the non-payment of a promissory note, seventy-five cents; and for each notice of the non-acceptance or non-payment of a bill, order, draft, check or note, given to a party liable for the payment thereof, twenty-five cents; but the whole cost of protest, including necessary notices and the record, if the bill, order, draft, check or note is of the amount of five hundred dollars or more, shall not exceed two dollars, and if it is less than five hundred dollars, shall not exceed one dollar and fifty cents; and the whole cost of noting, including recording and notices, shall in no case exceed one dollar and twenty-five cents.-Use of the State Seal:
The general rule is that use of the seal is prohibited for private commercial or advertising purposes, but allowed for official acts.
Since notaries and constables are both private businesspeople and public officials, there may be some grey areas about when the seal can be used and not.
Clearly, the seal can be used in a notarization, because that is an official act based on your commission.
The objection appears to be putting the seal on your business cards or stationery, since those can be used to promote yourself for private purposes outside the scope of your commission.
An analogous situation is that state legislators are allowed to have the seal on their state house stationery, but not on their campaign literature.
Sources of legal authority are MGL Ch. 264 sec. 5 ( prohibition against commercial or advertising use), Ch. 2 sec. 5 (authority of the secretary of state to make regulations regarding the state seal and flag), and 950 CMR 34 (the secretary's flag and seal regulations). 950 CMR 34 includes expanded language, at 34.12 (1)(c), prohibiting display "which incorrectly suggests that a person is acting on behalf of a law enforcement component of a governmental entity."
--------------------------------
since 3/10/04