Decades of Experience,
 Proven Results

Last reviewed June 2026 by Attorney Robert Shea.

Shea Culgin Law represents people injured in Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop in personal injury and workers’ compensation claims. We are a Massachusetts statewide practice based in Brockton — about 25 minutes down Route 24 from downtown — and we are candid about what that means: we are not a glass-tower Boston firm with Boston overhead, but we file in Suffolk Superior Court, appear at the Department of Industrial Accidents’ Boston office, and handle Suffolk County consultations by phone or video the same day you call. 508-510-5107 (injury) · 617-674-0408 (workers’ comp).

Suffolk County at a Glance

• County seat: Boston
• Population: about 800,000 in Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop
• Superior Court: Three Pemberton Square, Boston — the state’s busiest civil session
• District-level courts: Boston Municipal Court (Central + 7 neighborhood divisions), Chelsea District Court
• Major hospitals: MGH, Brigham and Women’s, Boston Medical Center, Tufts Medical Center
• Highest-risk corridors: I-93, I-90, Route 1A, Storrow Drive, Blue Hill Avenue
• Workers’ comp venue: Department of Industrial Accidents, Lafayette City Center, Boston

Suffolk County’s Courts

• Suffolk County Superior Court, Three Pemberton Square, Boston. The civil session of the state’s busiest Superior Court hears injury and wrongful death cases seeking damages above the $50,000 district court procedural limit. Its docket moves differently than suburban counties’ — discovery schedules, mediation culture, and jury pools all differ, and case strategy should account for that.
• Boston Municipal Court. Boston is unique: instead of a district court, the BMC’s Central Division (Edward W. Brooke Courthouse, 24 New Chardon Street) and its neighborhood divisions — Brighton, Charlestown, Dorchester, East Boston, Roxbury, South Boston, and West Roxbury — handle civil claims up to $50,000, divided by neighborhood.
• Chelsea District Court, 120 Broadway, Chelsea — civil claims for Chelsea and Revere.
• East Boston Division of the BMC — the venue for Winthrop cases.

Workers’ compensation claims are decided by the Department of Industrial Accidents, headquartered at Lafayette City Center in downtown Boston. Suffolk County comp claims are heard there, and DIA practice — conciliation, conference, hearing — is identical no matter which firm’s letterhead is on the filing. Ours simply costs the insurer the same and you nothing.

Boston’s Hospitals: The Strongest Medical Records in the State

Suffolk County injury victims are treated at the best-documented trauma centers in New England, which matters because medical records drive case value:

• Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital — Level I trauma centers (Mass General Brigham).
• Boston Medical Center, the region’s busiest trauma and safety-net hospital, serving much of Dorchester, Roxbury, and the southern neighborhoods.
• Tufts Medical Center downtown.
• Carney Hospital in Dorchester closed in August 2024 in the Steward bankruptcy — its former patients now treat at BMC, BID-Milton, and surrounding systems, and we routinely assemble records across that split.
• Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop patients frequently treat at MGH’s Chelsea and Revere HealthCare Centers or at CHA Everett, just over the county line.

Crash Patterns: A Dense, Pedestrian-Heavy County

Suffolk County’s injury profile is unlike anywhere else in Massachusetts. Boston consistently logs the state’s highest raw crash totals, but the mix skews toward lower-speed, higher-frequency collisions — and toward people outside vehicles:

• Pedestrian and bicycle injuries concentrate downtown, in the Seaport, and along corridors like Blue Hill Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue, and Broadway in Chelsea and Revere. Massachusetts recorded 78 pedestrian deaths in 2024, and Suffolk County carries a disproportionate share of serious pedestrian injuries.
• I-93, the Mass Pike (I-90), Storrow Drive, and the O’Neill Tunnel generate the county’s high-speed crashes; Route 1A and Route 16 through East Boston, Chelsea, and Revere are chronic merge-and-rear-end corridors, with Logan Airport traffic added on top.
• Rideshare, taxi, and delivery vehicles are involved in a meaningful share of Boston collisions — claims that raise commercial insurance layers worth substantially more than a private policy. Our Uber and rideshare accident page covers how those policies stack.
• MBTA bus and train incidents raise claims against a public entity with special notice requirements and damage caps — deadlines that forgive nothing.

How Suffolk County Works — and Gets Hurt Working

Boston’s construction boom is the single biggest driver of serious workplace injuries in the county: falls from height, struck-by incidents, and crane and equipment accidents on towers, labs, and infrastructure projects. Construction cases often pair a workers’ comp claim with a third-party claim against a general contractor or equipment owner — frequently the difference between a capped comp recovery and full damages. Add healthcare workers across the Longwood Medical Area and the trauma centers, hotel and food-service staff, Logan Airport ground crews, port and seafood workers in South Boston and East Boston, and delivery and warehouse workers across the city, and you have the claim mix we see from Suffolk County. Start with workers’ compensation or construction injuries.

Massachusetts Injury Law, Applied to Suffolk County Cases

The statutes are statewide, but Suffolk County cases have their own center of gravity. PIP still pays the first $8,000 regardless of fault — including for pedestrians and cyclists struck by cars, who claim against the striking vehicle’s policy — and the pain-and-suffering threshold ($2,000 in medicals or a qualifying injury) is usually crossed in a single ER visit at Boston prices. Those same Boston prices create the issue that quietly decides many Suffolk cases: liens. MassHealth, Medicare, private health plans, and hospital lien units all claim reimbursement from your settlement, and the difference between a well-negotiated lien and an ignored one is often tens of thousands of dollars in your pocket — lien work is unglamorous, and it is where a careful firm earns its fee. On liability, comparative negligence (recovery barred over 50% fault) does heavy lifting in pedestrian and bicycle cases, where insurers reflexively blame the person who got hit; camera footage from storefronts, buses, and intersections wins these arguments, and it gets overwritten in days or weeks. Finally, when liability is clear — a rear-end on the Expressway, a crosswalk strike — Chapters 93A and 176D obligate the insurer to make prompt, fair offers, and a documented failure to do so can expose the carrier to multiple damages. We build every serious Suffolk file with that endgame in mind.

Suffolk County Communities We Serve

Boston · Chelsea · Revere · Winthrop

Each guide covers the local courts, hospitals, roads, and claim types in detail.

The Cases We Handle in Suffolk County

• Car accidents — city collisions, PIP, and underinsured motorist claims.
• Pedestrian accidents and bicycle accidents — crosswalk, dooring, and intersection injuries.
• Truck accidents — delivery and commercial vehicle crashes.
• Wrongful death — M.G.L. c. 229 claims.
• Premises liability — falls in stores, apartment buildings, and on poorly maintained walks.
• Construction injuries — third-party claims alongside comp.
• Workers’ compensation — DIA claims at the Boston office.

Suffolk County FAQ

Why hire a Brockton firm for a Boston injury case?

Because venue, statutes, the DIA, and the insurers are identical — and our overhead is not. Suffolk Superior Court and the DIA’s Boston office are where we already practice. You get attorneys who answer their own phones and a contingency fee that buys lawyer time rather than Seaport rent. If after a free consultation we think a different firm suits your case better, we will say so.

My case involves the MBTA or the City of Boston. What’s different?

Public-entity defendants change everything: claims against municipalities require presentment within two years under M.G.L. c. 258, damages are capped at $100,000 for most negligence claims, and the MBTA has its own claims process. Miss the presentment deadline and the claim is gone regardless of merit. These cases reward early legal involvement more than almost any other type.

I was hit by an Uber driver in Boston. Whose insurance pays?

It depends on the driver’s app status: a personal policy if the app was off, contingent coverage if the app was on without a passenger, and a $1 million commercial policy during an active trip. Identifying the right layer — and proving trip status — is the core of rideshare cases. See our rideshare accident guide.

How long do I have to file?

Three years for most negligence claims (M.G.L. c. 260, § 2A), two years for presentment against public entities, 30 days’ notice for snow-and-ice falls, and four years from injury for DIA claims. Call early — evidence in city cases (camera footage especially) disappears in weeks, not years.

Talk to a Suffolk County Attorney Today

Call 508-510-5107 for personal injury or 617-674-0408 for workers’ compensation. Phone and video consultations are free, and we travel to meet Suffolk County clients when a case calls for it. No fee unless we win.