A judge in Maine has been accused of creating an intentional backlog of cases in his probate court in order to retaliate against the county board that denied him a large pay raise. The court had no prior backlog of cases until the judge switched his schedule, allegedly to get more paid holidays, after his request for the raise was rejected. Wait times for name changes and probate have more than doubled in almost all circumstances with adoptions going from a 90 day maximum wait to over 6 months. The judge has a history of professional responsibility violations with him being cited numerous times by the Maine Supreme Court including for violations related to his work as a judge. No word yet on if sanctions will be applied.
See Scott Dolan, Judge denied big pay raise retaliated by causing backlog, York County officials say, Portland Press Herald, November 9, 2015.
Special thanks to Deborah Matthews for bringing this article to my attention.
