Uniform Rules on Impoundment Procedure (2015) (URIP)
The Uniform Rules on Impoundment Procedure (URIP) govern impoundment of otherwise public case records that are filed in civil and criminal proceedings in each Department of the Trial Court. Case records are presumed to be open to the public, unless they are impounded or sealed as a matter of law, or impounded by a court order. These rules are inapplicable to case records that are required to be impounded by statute, court rule, standing order, or case law, except as otherwise provided in Rules 9, 11, and 13. These rules shall not be construed to deprive a person of any rights or remedies regarding impoundment that are otherwise available under law.
After experiencing medical complications following a delayed appendectomy, the plaintiff, Quinteasha DosSantos, commenced a malpractice action against Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, Inc., its corporate affiliate, and several health care providers. The plaintiff filed an offer of proof without her medical records, instead moving to impound the records before submitting them to the medical malpractice tribunal.
A Superior Court judge denied her motion but provided her the opportunity to refile it with a more particularized
description of the records she sought to impound. The plaintiff declined to do so and filed a motion for a protective order that would have restricted disclosure of her medical records, which the motion judge also denied without prejudice.
Multiple defendants filed demands for a medical malpractice tribunal pursuant to G. L. c. 231, § 60B (§ 60B), and Rule 73 of the Rules of the Superior Court (2020) (rule 73). A tribunal convened and reviewed the plaintiff’s offer of proof, which consisted of an opinion letter from an expert physician but not the plaintiff’s medical records. Following a hearing, the tribunal determined that the plaintiff’s offer of proof was insufficient. After the plaintiff failed to post the requisite bond pursuant to § 60B within thirty days of the tribunal’s findings, another Superior Court judge dismissed her claims against the defendants.
The plaintiff appealed from the denial of her motion for impoundment and the judgment of dismissal. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court concluded in its January 6, 2026 slip opinion that the motion judge’s denial of the plaintiff’s motion to impound her medical records did not constitute an abuse of discretion, and further held that the medical malpractice tribunal did not err in finding that the plaintiff’s offer of proof was insufficient to raise a legitimate question of liability appropriate for judicial inquiry as to any of the defendants [“Here, the plaintiff’s offer of proof consisted of an opinion letter from Kasotakis, a qualified expert physician, based on his review of the plaintiff’s medical records. Kasotakis did not name the defendants, identify their professions, or specify their roles in the plaintiff’s medical care. In the absence of such information, it is difficult to discern from Kasotakis’s letter how each defendant “failed to adhere to the standard of care and skill of the average member of the profession”]. Accordingly, we affirm the denial of the impoundment motion and the judgment of dismissal.”
“Since the plaintiff did not submit her medical records, we are unable to determine whether the plaintiff’s offer of proof would have been sufficient if considered in tandem with her records. See Chokel, 449 Mass. at 279. Accordingly, we affirm the tribunal’s finding that the plaintiff’s offer of proof was insufficient and affirm the judgment of dismissal.”
Source DosSantos v. Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Milton, Inc., SJC-13749.
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