The bustling Worcester Juvenile Court is down a judge again, not long after it finally received an extra pair of hands authorized by the Legislature.
BOSTON (SHNS) – The bustling Worcester Juvenile Court is down a judge again, not long after it finally received an extra pair of hands authorized by the Legislature. And that’s just part of the picture of a court system whose judges are spread thin, without enough to even cover all the courthouses they are assigned, according to a letter from the court’s chief justice.
According to Sen. Michael Moore, the Worcester court is “one of the highest counts of juveniles that are handled by the Juvenile Court.” And Governor’s Councilor Paul DePalo of Worcester said he believed the central city has “the most care and protection cases in the state’s Juvenile Court.”
“And that alone was the initial cause for adding an extra seat to Worcester. And losing that seat would seem to exacerbate the existing problem,” DePalo told the News Service on Monday.
Moore had attached a rider to the fiscal 2019 budget increasing the allotment of circuit court positions with the goal of beefing up Worcester County’s coverage. Then, in 2022, another judge was sent to Worcester, for a total of six judges in the busy courthouse.
The pair of elected officials were concerned when Judge Julie Lowre, the 2022 appointee, was transferred to Plymouth this year.
Chief Justice Dana Gershengorn, in a Sept. 23 reply to Moore and DePalo that was obtained by the News Service, outlined for the two officials the string of retirements and vacancies that led her to make that transfer, and she painted a picture of a thin margin for vacant seats. State law caps the number of Juvenile Court judges at 42.
“With only 42 judges required to staff 44 courthouses, many of the judges in the Juvenile Court travel between courts weekly — some even daily — to provide necessary coverage,” which can include delinquency cases, child requiring assistance cases, and harassment prevention cases, Gershengorn wrote.
The cap dates back over 100 years — to 1906 — Gershengorn said, and has “seen an increase in its judicial staffing of only one judge in the past 20 years.”
Three Juvenile Court judges retired across the state in 2024 after hitting the mandatory retirement age of 70, including the prior chief justice. After Gershengorn’s elevation to chief, Plymouth County “essentially” had “no assigned judges,” she wrote in the letter. At the time, Gershengorn wrote, only Worcester County was at “full capacity,” and Lowre was one of those to be transferred to the South Shore to fill the gap there.
“We got the funding for an additional justice there. And it took the previous administration two to three years to finally fill it, it got filled, and now that it’s filled, I think that we’ve had a justice there for maybe a year. They finally filled it. And now they’re transferring that justice to another court,” Moore told the News Service.
The Millbury Democrat said he initially sought the additional judge for Worcester County because of the number of cases heard there.
“It just doesn’t seem — it’s just hard to understand, how the Juvenile Court just cannot maintain the level of justices that it needed at the court to provide adequate services. These are kids,” he said.
The senator said the 42 judges spread across 44 courthouses was an issue that “needs to be addressed by the Legislature,” but that the number of available judges also “needs to be addressed by the Judiciary.”
“The Judiciary should be coming to the Legislature, coming to us, advocating for the appropriate amount of justices to provide the level of services that are needed,” he said.
In her letter, Gershengorn also referenced the court’s “significant undertaking” of proposing new Juvenile Court rules “to expedite legal permanence for children in care” that would “ensure an immediate hearing when children are removed from their homes by the Department of Children and Families.”
DePalo said he “applauded” the proposed rules. “But if they don’t have enough judges, there’s only so much they can do,” he added.
Since taking office in January 2023, Gov. Maura Healey has nominated three Juvenile Court candidates, all in late 2023. The most recent, Judge Jennifer Currie, took her oath of office in February after a confirmation process that was initiated last December.
A Healey spokesperson confirmed Monday that there are currently three openings on the Juvenile Court bench.
Governor’s Councilor Terrence Kennedy said the Juvenile Court is “the most important” because “that’s where you can do something to change people’s lives.” But, Kennedy said, the three vacancies have not been out there for an unusual amount of time.
“At the pace they’ve been going, that’s not a long time. Since the summer? It’s the end of September. That’s like eight weeks. In the normal course of events, it takes two or three months to go through the process. With this administration, it seems to take a little longer,” he said.
The Lynnfield councilor described “a little frustration at the pace of the nominations.”
“And the response we got was, ‘Well, we’re on the same pace as the Baker administration was. We have as many nominees we’ve put up in this timeframe.’ But what they miss is, not in relationship to the number of openings. Do you follow me? I mean, we have openings for Superior Court that go back almost two years,” he told the News Service.
Kennedy said he was in Brockton on Monday where multiple judges talked to him about around eight District Court vacancies, and he also heard concerns about the five or six openings on the Superior Court, which he reported is “surviving on recall judges, basically.”
On the Parole Board, whose members also come before the Governor’s Council for confirmation, Chair Tina Hurley’s term expired on June 1, according to council records, meaning she continues to serve in a holdover status.
DePalo said that he is “hearing from judges and practitioners across our courts, quite frankly, on their concern about accelerating the rate of nominations coming forward so we can fill these seats.”
In the Juvenile Court, that’s about the “most vulnerable kids,” he said.
Moore called the situation “very frustrating.”
“As someone who’s been advocating to make sure that services are being provided for the juveniles — for kids that are in the court system — and this also includes juveniles that are in the DCF system — the last thing we need to see is another Harmony Montgomery case that’s going to possibly materialize because of inadequate staffing,” the senator said.