Commonwealth v. Pare’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Evidence is generally relevant so long as it has ‘a “rational tendency to prove an issue in the case” ’ or makes a ‘desired inference more probable than it would be without’ the evidence. . . . The desired evidence ‘need not establish directly the proposition sought; it must only provide a link in the chain of proof.’. . . Indeed, evidence is to be considered relevant if it only ‘throw[s] light,’ . . . or ‘shed[s] light on an issue,’. . . or, ‘in connection with other evidence, it helps [the fact-finder] a little.’. . . It is relevant if it ‘could have been helpful’ for a jury in determining whether a complainant was telling the truth. ... So long as evidence possesses any of these probative tendencies, even if it ‘is of marginal significance, we cannot say that it [is] irrelevant.’ ””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Clayton · 11 Mass. L. Rptr. 225 - Commonwealth v. Kartell

2. ““Initially, we note that the facts of this case do not implicate the principal public policy rationale which prompted the Bishop procedures, i.e., minimizing the potential reluctance of rape and sexual abuse victims to seek needed therapy. See Bishop, [supra] at 176 ; Fuller, [supra] at 221-222 . In cases in which children of tender years, like John, are subjected to diagnostic evaluations at the behest of an adult without the necessity of their assent, the concern that disclosure of the records of that evaluation will create a ‘chilling effect . . . preventing those in need from seeking . . . help,’ Commonwealth v. Collett, 387 Mass. 424, 428 (1982), seems of much reduced significance” (footnote omitted).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Pare