(The Berkshire Eagle – Amanda Burke) When Judge Richard Simons took his position on the Berkshire Probate and Family Court in 2008, about 15 percent of the cases before him involved the Department of Children and Families.
Those cases, which typically involve abuse and neglect, tend to be the most fraught, and can be more complicated to navigate legally.
Nowadays, Simons said, the share of such cases before him is about 80 percent. That shakes out to a heavy workload for judges tasked with arbitrating issues involving child welfare and custody, as well as divorce, guardianship of adults, and more.
“We see the impact of COVID-19 on children and families, we see loss of jobs, we see substance-use disorder. We see the untreated mental illness,” Simons said. “The burden on the Probate and Family Court judges has been very, very high. And we’ve been asking for some help for a long time.”
Help could be on the way, thanks to legislation that is poised to expand by eight the number of probate judges sitting in the commonwealth for the first time since 1999. There are currently about 50.
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