Filings up; judges down in Baltimore County 

Posted: 7:00 pm Sun, November 1, 2009
By Danny Jacobs
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer

The economic slowdown has been a double-edged sword for circuit courthouses across the state. They are busier than ever, thanks in large part to the flood of foreclosure filings. But the state’s budget woes mean they have been unable to hire additional staff to process all of the complaints and motions, leading to backlogs in some clerks’ offices.

Baltimore County Circuit Court is projecting a 10 percent increase in civil filings this year over 2008, to 16,000, and already has a week’s backlog of filings that have been docketed. Unlike other jurisdictions, however, the county will be down two veteran judges come Saturday, with no replacements on the horizon, even as it awaits an appointment to a newly created seat.

“Everything in the courthouse starts and ends with the judges,” said Tim Sheridan, the court’s administrator. “All of the planning and case-flow management requires a judge to be at the end.”

Lawyers in the county almost universally empathize with the court’s untenable position, but many also worry that a courthouse struggling to keep pace with a full complement of judges will fall off significantly when it is shorthanded.

“If we have 17 judges, sometimes I feel like we need 23,” said Robert J. Thompson, a general practitioner in Towson.

Foreclosure filings

Four years ago, before the recession began, Baltimore County averaged about 180 foreclosures a month. Last year, a total of 2,500 were filed, and this year approximately 3,100 had been filed through September, the most recent month for data.

William E. Allen, the court’s chief deputy clerk, has been with the office for 55 years. He could not remember it ever falling behind until the foreclosures hit. At its worst this summer, docketing was three weeks behind in the clerk’s office, he said.

Hiring additional employees was not an option because of the state’s budget problems, said Judge John Grason Turnbull II, the court’s administrative judge. But the court was granted some additional overtime pay, and personnel was shifted and worked weekends to help reduce the backlog, he said.

Allen said the forced furloughs required of state employees have not significantly impacted productivity in the clerk’s office, although morale has taken a hit with the accompanying loss in salary.

“We’re working many, many hours in overtime to keep abreast of what’s coming in,” he said. “We’re trying to do everything we possibly can.”

Turnbull praised the work of the Baltimore County clerk’s office in a difficult situation.

“We’re very happy with the performance of the clerk’s office,” Turnbull said. “They are striving to do everything they can under difficult circumstances to make sure the backlog doesn’t exist.”

Other circuit courts reported slightly shorter docketing times on average, even with the increase in foreclosures.

In Howard County, where 4,100 civil lawsuits were filed last year, docketing can be done the same day or up to two days afterward, said Wayne A. Robey, the chief deputy clerk. Foreclosure filings there jumped from 411 to in 2006 to 775 last year, and already this year more than 1,100 have been filed, he said. The increase has not caused a back-up for docketing pleadings, although they have slowed down the filing of new cases and orders, he said.

Prince George’s County, which has led the state in foreclosures for at least two years, had 6,300 foreclosure filings in the in the first half of 2009 — more than twice as many as Baltimore County had in the first nine months.
Deborah A. Cooke, the Prince George’s County Circuit Court’s chief deputy clerk, said 39,000 civil lawsuits were filed last year, a nearly 20 percent increase. But the clerk’s office still strives to docket all filing within three days of receiving them, she said.

The clerk’s office was granted some contract employees as requested to help with the foreclosure deluge, but it was still not enough, Cooke added.

“We all just pitched in,” she said.

Back in Baltimore County, Allen said another effect of the economy has been an increase in pro se litigants, whose unfamiliarity with the legal system means employees of the clerk’s have to spend more time advising them, though without giving legal advice.

“It takes longer to talk to them than to talk to an attorney,” he said.

The Maryland State Bar Association’s Judicial Administration and Family Law sections have been working together to develop guidelines for attorneys where the opposing party is unrepresented.

Missing judges

While a flood of filings can overwhelm the clerk’s office, judicial vacancies can affect the process itself, Allen noted.

“If you don’t have judges to try the case, you have a backlog,” he said. “Things will slow down.”

Judges John O. Hennegan and Lawrence R. Daniels both announced their retirements in June, deciding not to run for re-election next year. Daniels’ last day on the bench was Friday; Hennegan’s last day will be this Friday.

That will leave the circuit court with 15 of its 17 sitting judges.

Both judges plan to sit as retired judges in Baltimore County and across the state. Hennegan will continue to oversee the county’s juvenile drug and child support courts, while Daniels is scheduled to hear cases specially assigned to him in November and December, said Turnbull, the administrative judge.

“I expect them to sit almost without interruption,” Turnbull said.

That Daniels and Hennegan gave advance notice of their retirements has helped the court’s scheduling office manage the upcoming hearing and trial calendar, Sheridan said.

Other judges have begun rearranging their dockets: Judge Susan Souder agreed earlier this year to push back the January start date of a mass-action lawsuit filed by Jacksonville residents against ExxonMobil Corp. for a 25,000-gallon-plus leak at a local gas station to October 2010. The case is estimated to run four months, and Souder said in court the delay would help ensure full staffing of the daily docket early next year.

Meanwhile, Baltimore County prosecutors are anticipating the number of criminal cases in circuit court to reach more than 7,000 this year, an increase of more than 25 percent from 2008, according to the clerk’s office.

State’s Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger said the jump is largely attributable to a procedural change instituted this year that has resulted in more cases coming up from district court, by design.

Shellenberger remains concerned, however, that criminal cases could be postponed if a judge is unavailable once Daniels and Hennegan retire. Many of the cases have hard and fast deadlines that cannot be avoided, and changing trial dates can inconvenience police and witnesses in addition to lawyers.

“We hope the criminal docket will keep its priority,” he said.
Joshua A. Glikin, who handles business and intellectual property cases, said he typically has to wait four months from the time he files a motion until a hearing is held.

“It’s natural to believe that if the court is losing two judges, it will increase the wait time,” said Glikin, a member of Bowie & Jensen LLC in Towson.

The most difficult situation is when a motion to dismiss is pending and discovery is still open, he said. The time lapse could become expensive for a client, and time and money expended on discovery could prove worthless if the case is ultimately dismissed.

“I know the court is well aware of it, but lawyers have a different perspective on timing with their clients being billed,” he said.

Thompson has had several cases placed on standby, which can add two or three months to the typical year it takes from filing a complaint to starting a trial, he said. A lawyer on standby must prepare for court, but while the case might be postponed, the lawyer cannot get back the hours that could have been spent with current or prospective clients, he said.

“Multiply that by 1,200, and you can see what a slow docket costs the county bar,” said Thompson, referring to the number of members in the Baltimore County Bar Association.

Not yet advertised

When reinforcements to the bench will arrive remains to be seen. Neither Daniels’ nor Hennegan’s positions has been advertised, the formal start of filling a vacant seat through the county’s Judicial Nominating Commission.

The nominating commission, which takes its cue from the governor’s office, has not received any word about starting the process, said Samuel Blibaum, who chairs the county’s trial-court nomination commission.

The General Assembly also appropriated funds for a new judge effective July 1, but that seat also has not been advertised. Both Turnbull and Sheridan said the county is already prepared for the addition.

“If the governor gave us an 18th judge tomorrow, we could sit the judge,” Sheridan said.

Shaun Adamec, a spokesman for Gov. Martin O’Malley, said there is no timetable in place for the selection process to begin.
He said budget considerations have not played any role in the delays; a circuit judge’s salary is $140,000 annually.

The most recent judicial vacancy in the county occurred last year, when Judge Dana Mark Levitz retired Dec. 31. Advertisements seeking replacements began running in mid-November, and applications were due Dec. 15. O’Malley appointed Judge Sherrie R. Bailey on April 30.

The three most recent judicial vacancies filled across the state took approximately four months from application deadline to appointment, according to the Maryland Judiciary.

The applicants in the pool from which Bailey was chosen are automatically considered for all three seats. Bailey and the three new judges must all run for re-election next fall, but O’Malley has no timeline for making appointments once he receives the nominations, according to his spokesman.

“The governor’s main objective is to find the right candidate,” Adamec said.

Though the circuit court might be waiting on judges, it is moving ahead on other infrastructure matters. All of the courtrooms have been recently wired for digital recording, although there is not enough staff to operate CourtSmart in all of the courtrooms, Sheridan said. Court reporters will continue to be used, although they will not be replaced when they retire, Turnbull said.
Construction is scheduled to begin by next summer on three additional courtrooms and four additional master hearing rooms on a now-empty wing of the fourth floor. The law library and 911 call center will also switch places on the first floor in a separate construction phase.

“The key to the whole thing is flexibility,” Sheridan said.

The same idea goes for surviving without new judges.

“We’ll make it through down judges,” he said, “but it’ll be a great boon to have that back.”