(Boston Globe – Matt Stout) Massachusetts lawmakers appearpoised to pass the largest one-time expansion of a state judicial bench since at least 2000, embracing plans to fortify a Probate and Family Court system that officials say is swamped with increasingly complex cases.
The Massachusetts House and Senate both tucked language into their state budget proposals that wouldadd eight judges, pushing the number of probate and family justices to 59 and the statewide judicial bench to 425.
Its inclusion in both chambers’ budget plans likely ensures it will reach the desk of Governor Maura Healey, a first-term Democrat. Should the expansion become law, Healey would have the power to pick the nominees for any newly created posts.
Judiciary leaders have pressed for the $1.6 million plan, arguing that probate and family judges — who handle divorces, custody disputes, estate and guardianship cases, and adoptions — shoulder some of the largest, and thorniest, workloads in the court system. Judges can thentake months to issue decisions, leaving families, children, and others in the lurch with what court officials acknowledge are “intolerable delays.”
“The Probate and Family Court docket mirrors society’s ills,” said state Senator John C. Velis, a Westfield Democrat, noting that mental health and substance use issues, domestic violence, and poverty are often intertwined in these judges’ caseloads. “Folks’ lives can’t go on until a matter is resolved [in these cases]. So when they’re prolonged for months or years, what societal benefit is there?”
Massachusetts has expanded its bench before, most recently in 2017 when it added six justices — five in the Housing Court and one in Juvenile Court — to push its current headcount to 417.
The largest expansion before that goes back to 2000, when the Juvenile Court grew by four justices, from 37 to 41, according to a Trial Court spokeswoman. The Probate and Family Court itself hasn’t grown since 1999, when it added two justices.
…