Goodbye and Thank You!

Skylark Law & Mediation, P.C. will no longer be handling bankruptcy, criminal defense or firearms cases, in order to concentrate our practice on resolving family conflicts.   While this blog will remain available as a resource, we will not be updating or posting new information after today.

If you have a question related to these practice areas, for bankruptcy we recommend The Law Offices of Lee Darst; for criminal defense we recommend Cappetta Law Offices; and for firearms related work we recommend Julie Tolek of Think Pink Law.  Julie recently became an Associate at Skylark Law & Mediation, PC, and will continue to run her own practice as well.

Julie will continue to represent both individual and business clients navigating second amendment compliance, and below is a message from Attorney Tolek regarding her 2nd amendment practice:

I think I was 20 years old when I shot my first gun. It was a Glock of some sort. I didn't pay attention to the model at the time because I was too busy listening to the instructor tell me I was a natural (obviously). We were shooting at a bullet proof glass panel that had been removed from a car. My mom had taken me with her to go shooting since she had worked with this instructor before, so I credit her with introducing me to firearms...although today she denies she had anything to do with it.

I continued to shoot over the years, but it wasn't until the summer that I took the bar exam (over ten years after I had shot my first gun, ever) that I actually applied for and received my License to Carry Firearm in Massachusetts. I took my safety class on my birthday that summer, as my present to myself. Getting my LTC had been on my bucket list since the day I pulled my first trigger so I was floored.

The day I took my firearms qualification exam (as required where I lived at the time) it was a gorgeous day, the sun reflecting in the Boston Harbor. The test was at Boston Police Firearms Range at Moon Island. It was three days before the bar exam. I couldn't have picked a better way to take a break from studying. I was the only girl there.

After my shooting test, I decided I like revolvers. Double action, mostly. To me, they are works of art. Revolvers demand respect (like all firearms.). Cool metal with curves. A revolver is a contradiction in itself; old school, yet modern - a timeless piece of handcrafted machinery, its mechanics unchanged over hundreds of years.

Lucky for me (and you!), my passion for firearms has intertwined itself with my passion for law. That I got my License to Carry AND my license to practice law at the same time is symbolic: I do what I love and I love what I do. Firearms law is a specialized type of law where having a passionate lawyer who just happens to also be a gun enthusiast makes for powerful advocacy for you, our clients.

For more information contact Julie at Think Pink Law.

Do you know how CORI reports work?

CORI stands for Criminal Offender Record Information, which is managed in Massachusetts by the CORI Support Services Unit.  According to their website, the CORI unit process an average of 100,000 requests per month to access the criminal records of individuals in Massachusetts. This does not include law enforcement agencies which may have access to a more complete report.

Also according to the CORI Unit website:

"The source of criminal history information contained in the iCORI database is the Office of the Commissioner of Probation (OCP), a subdivision of the Administrative Office of the Trial Court (AOTC).  Accordingly, OCP is the only state agency that can change information that appears in the iCORI database.  Further, only OCP can seal criminal convictions."

In 2010, Massachusetts reformed the CORI law which significantly updated how CORI's could be accessed, used, sealed, and shared.  This chart produced by the Boston Workers Alliance clarifies the changes in the 2010 reform and is a great overview of how CORIs work.

If you want to know what is on your report prior to someone else accessing it you can request a copy of your CORI here.