The Massachusetts military affidavit

How Massachusetts handles it

One sheet covers all seven Trial Court departments. The Military Affidavit, coded Standardized (Multi - BMC, DC, HC, JC, LC, PFC, SC)-Civil-TC0002 (04/23), is the form the Trial Court publishes to satisfy Mass. R. Civ. P. 55(b)(4), which bars a default judgment "until the filing of an affidavit made by any competent person, on the affiant’s own knowledge, setting forth facts showing whether or not the defendant is in military service." The rule lets any competent person sign, so a paralegal or a property manager with the facts can be the affiant.

Item 1 has four lettered slots, and you list party names under each: A for parties in military service, B for parties not in military service, C for parties who have concluded military service, with a demand for the exact date service ended, and D for parties whose status you cannot determine. Slot C exists because the SCRA reaches a window after separation. Slot D prints its own warning on the form: under 50 U.S.C. 3931(b)(3) you understand the court may require you to file a bond before entering judgment.

Item 2 is where Massachusetts differs from most states. You must check A or B. A says you used the SCRA website at scra.dmdc.osd.mil and that your search results are attached, and the form marks the attachment "(Required.)" B says you did not use the website, and then demands specific facts, with eleven ruled lines for them. The instructions point to defense.gov for the addresses of the service headquarters if you write to the branches instead.

The reason for that structure is on the record. The 2020 Reporter’s Notes to Rule 55 say the amendment was made to track 50 U.S.C. 3931(b)(1)(A) and (B), and that the Supreme Judicial Court advisory committee asked the Trial Court to update the affidavit so it would show whether a search of the SCRA website was made, attach the results, and otherwise state supporting facts. The 04/23 form is that update.

Small claims run on a different track. Small Claims Standard 6:02, issued by the Administrative Office of the Trial Court for the District Court, Boston Municipal Court, and Housing Court departments, says that when the defendant fails to appear at the calling of the list the court should default the defendant and routinely enter judgment and a payment order, and that "a separate military affidavit is necessary only if the appropriate box has not been completed on the statement of small claim."

What trips filers up here

• The military box on the Statement of Small Claim is the whole filing for most small claims plaintiffs. Miss it and you are filing a second document to fix a checkbox.
• Checking item 1D is an invitation to post a bond. The form says so on its face, which is unusual, and it changes the economics of admitting you could not find the person.
• The definition of military service is reprinted in full on page 1, including commissioned officers of the Public Health Service and NOAA, absence from duty for sickness, wounds, or leave, and the 50 U.S.C. 3914 route for a citizen serving with an allied force. The affiant is expected to have read it before checking a box.
• The form is department-agnostic but division-specific. You still have to write the court division or county, and the instructions use "Brighton Division, Attleboro District Court, Barnstable Probate and Family Court" as the examples.

Signing it: declaration, no notary

The signature line reads "Subscribed and certified or declared to be true under penalty of perjury." No notary, no clerk. The instructions add that you may sign the form electronically, and that a Massachusetts attorney must print a Board of Bar Overseers number while an attorney licensed elsewhere gives a state bar number.

No notary is needed. The signature block is an unsworn declaration under penalty of perjury, which is what 50 U.S.C. § 3931(b)(4) expressly allows. Signing it knowing the military statement is false is still a federal crime, and a state perjury exposure on top.

Massachusetts law on top of the federal rule

M.G.L. c. 33, § 13A: Members of the armed forces of the commonwealth ordered to active duty under chapter 33, another state’s authority, or Title 32 get all rights, protections, privileges, and immunities of the federal SCRA, except the life insurance provisions, and the federal five-year cumulative service limit is extended to eight years for state service.

Getting the military-status answer right

The affidavit is only as good as the search behind it. The Defense Manpower Data Center runs the free lookup that courts and creditors rely on, and since 2026 it requires a free account even for a single record. Our guide to the DMDC SCRA website covers the search itself, what a "no information found" result does and does not prove, and the batch route for high-volume filers. The federal rules behind this form, including what happens when you genuinely cannot determine status, sit on the hub page.

If one was filed against you

A false affidavit is not a technicality. In May 2026 the Justice Department settled with a Florida property manager that swore a Navy sailor was not on active duty, took a default eviction judgment, and left him with an eviction on his record that a dozen landlords then refused to rent around: $60,000 to one servicemember plus a civil penalty . If a default judgment was entered against you while you were serving, it can be reopened; the default-judgment shield walks the deadlines.

Serving in Massachusetts and looking for what the state adds to your own protections rather than court procedure? That is a different page: Massachusetts SCRA benefits.