Under M.G.L. c 258E a Harassment Order is available to a person who establishes that on 3 or more occasions, he has been the target of acts that were willful and malicious and aimed at him or her specifically, by a person with the intent to cause fear, intimidate, abuse or damage property and that it did in fact cause fear, intimidation, abuse or damage to said property. Under ?1 of c258E, "malicious" is defined as "characterized by cruelty, hostility or revenge. In summary, if there is no legitimate purpose to the neighbor's acts other than to harass you and they have occurred on three (3) or more occasions, you may be entitled to a Harassment Prevention Order under M.G.L. c258E. This is something that you can apply for yourself by going to the Clerk's Office at the court that holds jurisdiction in your location and applying. You would likely have a better chance of success by employing an attorney, who should know how to present the information in a way that satisfies the statute. Now, having said that, I can tell you that in my experience, you essentially have three choices here. 1) You can seek protection of the law. However, it will be an ongoing fight between you and your neighbor for the foreseeable future because when one party sends a legal volley over the fence, in the vast majority of cases, the recipient will send one back and you will be fighting legal battles forever; 2), you can move; or 3) you can get a bottle of wine or a 6-pack, knock on your neighbor's door, and try to come to terms with him or her to avoid numbers 1 or 2. Please be advised that all answers provided online are for the purpose of general legal information only and do not constitute specific legal advice and do not establish an attorney client relationship. Furthermore, all information provided pertains to Massachusetts law only and should not be construed to have any relevance to issues or laws of any state but Massachusetts.
Answered on Apr 09th, 2014 at 11:40 AM