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December 05, 2025 Clear | 14°F
The 194th General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
  1. General Laws
  2. Part I ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT
  3. Title IV CIVIL SERVICE, RETIREMENTS AND PENSIONS
  4. Chapter 31 CIVIL SERVICE
  5. Section 45 Reimbursement for defense expenses

Section 45

Section 45: Reimbursement for defense expenses

[ First paragraph effective until November 20, 2024. For text effective November 20, 2024, see below.]

  Section 45. A tenured employee who has incurred expense in defending himself against an unwarranted discharge, removal, suspension, laying off, transfer, lowering in rank or compensation, or abolition of his position and who has engaged an attorney for such defense shall be reimbursed for such expense, but not to exceed two hundred dollars for attorney fees for each of the following: (1) a hearing by the appointing authority; (2) a hearing pursuant to section forty-two or forty-three; (3) a judicial review pursuant to section forty-four; and not to exceed one hundred dollars for each of the following: (1) summons of witnesses; (2) cost of stenographic transcript; (3) any other necessary expense incurred in such defense.

[ First paragraph as amended by 2024, 238, Sec. 138 effective November 20, 2024. For text effective until November 20, 2024, see above.]

  An aggrieved individual who has prevailed in any appeal brought under this chapter shall be reimbursed by the local appointing authority or, if aggrieved by action or inaction of a state official, by the comptroller of the commonwealth, the following expenditures: (i) the filing fee paid to the commission; (ii) an amount not to exceed $1,500 for attorneys' fees actually incurred in conjunction with each of the following: (A) an appointing authority hearing; (B) a hearing before the commission; and (C) an action for judicial review pursuant to section 44; and (iii) an amount not to exceed $500 for summons to witnesses and any other expenses actually incurred in such successful appeal. In addition to the amounts stated above, the commission may award such additional reasonable attorneys' fees and costs up to $25,000 to an appellant who prevails in an appeal brought under this chapter, upon an express finding of either bad faith on the part of the appointing authority or an egregious or willfully repeated violation of this chapter, unless special circumstances would render such additional award unjust.

  Any person seeking such reimbursement shall file with his appointing authority a written application therefor within thirty days after final disposition of his case. The appointing authority shall, within thirty days after receipt of such application, pay such reimbursement from the same source as that from which the salary of the person seeking the reimbursement is paid, but only upon receipt of satisfactory proof that such expenses were actually incurred for the purposes set forth in this section.

  Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays shall not be counted in the computation of any time period specified in this section.