Governor's Council members stepped up their calls Wednesday for prompt action to fill the growing list of judicial vacancies, and Gov. Maura Healey responded, telling the State House News Service she would hand down her next Superior Court nominations "very shortly."
Councilor Tara Jacobs raised the issue at the end of the council's weekly assembly, which was chaired by Healey on Wednesday. The North Adams Democrat pointed to empty slots across the court system and said that constituents, lawmakers, and members of the judiciary have contacted her with "words of concern" via phone, text, and email.
"The 30-plus judicial vacancies are creating a critical bottleneck in our courts, one that is felt and seen," Jacobs said. "And that is reaching a critical and urgent level that I hope will be addressed with a renewed vigor in nominations coming to council."
Of all the short-handed state courts, the Superior Court is stretched especially thin.
Lawyers Weekly reported in June that the Superior Court's "timely disposed rate" for fiscal 2023 was just 54.6%, the "lowest of any court department." And "one out of every seven full-time seats on the Superior Court bench is open."
As of Thursday, there were 11 vacancies on the Superior Court bench, Healey spokeswoman Karissa Hand confirmed.
"There's about 12 sessions that are down, which is really a significant number. It's having a huge impact, especially on the civil side," Councilor Terrence Kennedy told the News Service after Wednesday's assembly. He added, "The civil sessions are basically shut down, almost across the state, from what I've seen. There are some, obviously, functioning. But probably at 10 percent of what they should be."
The result is a serious impact on people's rights, said Kennedy, a practicing defense attorney.
"You know, you have people in personal injury cases that receive serious injuries that aren't getting compensated. You have business disputes going on that are tying people up that can't conduct business for one reason or another. It just goes on and on and on," the Lynnfield Democrat said.
Healey has not nominated a Superior Court candidate since Oct. 20, 2023, when she recommended attorney Michael Pineault, a former Patrick aide whom the council confirmed Nov. 8. In total, the governor has sought to fill three Superior Court seats over her one and a half years in office.
"This is a top priority for me, to make sure that we have all vacancies filled," Healey told the News Service on her way out of the Council Chamber on Wednesday. "And I expect to be making an announcement very shortly with the next round of nominations for the Superior Court."
South Coast Councilor Joseph Ferreira, responding to Healey's pledge to act "very shortly," told the News Service that the council is prepared to go into overtime this summer to process whatever nominations the governor hands down.
"Once the governor presents us with nominations, we are more than willing to do our work and have three or more hearings a day if we need to, just to make sure that people get access to justice and that the courts are filled," Ferreira said.
Jacobs opened her speech during the assembly by sharing that she had recently read through old council records and found a transcript of applicable remarks by Councilor Herbert Connolly in 1970.
She quoted Connolly's speech, delivered when Gov. Francis Sargent chaired the council, in which Connolly said that "many of our citizens are most uncomfortably waiting to be reached in a great number of our busier courts."
"I cannot help but feel that we are being negligent of our duty to them, and to the cause of swift administration of justice, when we continue to allow the increasing number of judicial vacancies to go week after week without being filled," the Newton Democrat said 54 years ago.
Connolly's sentiment "feels relevant for today," Jacobs told Healey.
