Lawyers say changes to controversial qualified immunity doctrine would move Mass. into uncharted legal waters

Howard Friedman is quoted in this article: Lawyers say changes to controversial qualified immunity doctrine would move Mass. into uncharted legal waters. Howard says “he would like the Legislature to pass a stronger civil rights law and eliminate qualified immunity in state courts altogether.”

Qualified immunity is a judge-made law that prevents people from successfully bringing civil rights cases involving false arrest, police brutality, and other complaints against police. For example, qualified immunity permitted police officers to get away with stealing over $225,000 during the search of a person’s home.

Massachusetts lawmakers are currently considering a policing bill that may make changes to the way qualified immunity is applied to state civil rights cases. We don’t believe these changes go far enough. Qualified immunity should be eliminated from the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act. Anything less than that would be counter-productive and result in complicated litigation as the courts struggle to interpret a new statute. If you are concerned about how qualified immunity prevents people from using our state’s civil rights statute, it’s not too late to contact your legislators.