Turokowitz et al. v Town of Provincetown et al. (2012)
Our clients were a DJ and his partner hired for a house party on a summer Saturday night in Provincetown. The police came to the house three times, perhaps responding to the wrong address, on a noisy July Saturday night in a popular beach resort. The first two times, the police only came to the front door, with warnings to keep the noise down, so our client knew nothing of the two earlier visits when the police came into the backyard on their third response and told him they were shutting the party down. He announced to the crowd that the police were shutting the party down and the police took offense at his choice of words, assaulting and arresting him and then assaulting and arresting his partner when the partner complained about the police misconduct. The case was settled for a substantial amount that a confidentiality agreement prevents us from disclosing.

Chao v. Ballista et al. (2012)
Jason & Fischer took over representation of a young lady who had been raped and sexually abused by a prison guard while she was serving a sentence in state prison. The guard claimed the sex was consensual. We argued that a prisoner cannot consent to sex with her guard and obtained a favorable decision on this issue, attached here. We then won a verdict not only against the guard, for $43,732 but also a separate verdict against the prison superintendent, for $68,307 plus an award of attorneys’ fees of more than $200,000 against the state Department of Corrections. The award against the superintendent was significant not just because we were able to prove that this supervisor knew of and ignored the guard’s conduct but because the judgment against the then former guard could have been impossible to collect. In the end, after being paid by the state Department of Corrections for the attorneys’ fees and judgment against the superintendent, we were able to collect payment of most of the judgment against the guard as well.

Eason v. Alexis et al. (2013)
Our client was leaving his mother’s home after visiting her. As he rushed out the door to work, his passage was blocked by a police officer who, with several other officers, hurled Mr. Eason over the stair railing, arrested him and charged him with assault and battery on the police officer who was blocking his way. Our civil rights suit alleged that the criminal charges were to cover up the police abuse. Jason & Fischer obtained a settlement of $115,000.

Kimmy Brown et al. v. Bayview Crematorium, 79 Mass. App. Ct. 337 (2011)
Jason & Fisher recovered over $200,000 for two sisters, whose mother’s ashes were mixed up with ashes of another woman by the defendant crematorium. Andrew Fischer and Andrew Brodie of Jason & Fischer tried the case and then defended the verdict in two separate appeals, establishing the right to claim damages in negligence for the mutilation of a corpse even when there is no physical manifestation of the pain and suffering. To read the Appeals Court opinion, click here.

Congregation Kadimah Toras-Moshe v Robert A. Deleo, administrator, 405 Mass. 365, 540 N.E.2d 691 (1989)
Jason & Fischer represented a synagogue attempting to enforce an oral promise by a congregant to give $25,000 to the synagogue upon his death. The congregant then died intestate and the administrator of the estate claimed the oral promise was not enforceable.

Lima v. Jeffrey, 29 Mass.App.Ct. 1106, 559 N.E.2d 1267 (1990)
The result of this case awarded punitive damages in a consumer claim against a home improvement contractor who took advantage of an elderly homeowner, upholding that a “bait and switch” tactic is an unfair business practice.

Smith v Adams, Comm v Adams, 416 Mass. 558, 624 N.E.2d 102 (1993)
This is a civil rights case against thirteen (13) Boston Police Officers, who chased, beat and arrested John Smith. The case was consolidated with a case brought by the Attorney General against the same thirteen (13) defendant officers, which resulted after trial in the issuance of an injunction barring the defendants from using excessive force or otherwise violating the civil rights of suspects or arrestees. The case also applied the joint venture principles of Bell v. Mazza, in holding that all police officers present where excessive force is used in an unlawful arrest can be held liable as joint venturers. After the Attorney General’s portion of the case was upheld on appeal, a jury verdict of $300,000 was obtained for Mr. Smith. This was also appealed, but settled during the appeal.

Wyler v Bonnell Ford, 35 Mass.App.Ct. 563, 624 N.E.2d 116 (1994)
This case held that use of criminal process to further a civil claim is not just an abuse of process but also a violation of the consumer protection act.

Cohen v Lindsey, 38 Mass.App.Ct. 1, 644 N.E.2d 250 (1995)
This case remains one of the lead cases in Massachusetts on the issue of attorney’s liens for legal fees. In this case, Mr. Fischer recovered substantive attorneys fees from a third party who owed moneys to his client.

City of Lynn v. Thompson
This is a case where the City of Lynn fired a police officer who twice had broken civilian’s arms in the course of making arrests. Each time the city was sued because the police officer’s excessive force was a violation of the civilian’s constitutional rights. The city tried to fire the officer but officer appealed his discharge. Mr. Fischer authored a “friend of the court” amicus brief on behalf of a number of civil rights groups supporting the efforts of the city to remove the officers who habitually use excessive force or engage in violations of citizen’s rights. Read Andrew Fischer’s amicus brief for this case.