Marcia Chambers Photo
Probate Court vault
When Gov. M. Jodi Rell overhauled the state’s probate system last year and reduced the number of probate judges by nearly two-thirds, Branford Probate Judge John E. Donegan predicted the new system “will become much more politicized.”
He was right. With more judges vying for fewer judgeships, the 2010 race for the probate court is no longer a sleepy every-four-year event that often fails to attract an opposition party candidate.
Effective January 2011, the number of probate courts in the state will be reduced by roughly two-thirds, from 117 to 54. Branford’s Probate Court will merge with North Branford’s; the joint court will be located at Branford Town Hall. Guilford and Madison have also merged.
As fate would have it, Judge Donegan, a Democrat who has presided over the Branford probate court for nearly 20 years, usually running unopposed, will not be among the candidates. He has decided not to run because he would be able to serve for only 13 months before he turns 70. And at age 70, probate judges must by law leave the bench.
“And I don’t know if it would be proper and fair to go ahead and say I can only serve 13 months but I want to run for a four-year term,” he said in an interview.
Marcia Chambers Photo
Judge John E. Donegan
When he presented his final budget request to the Board of Finance earlier this week, he thanked the board and observed he had come before them for the last 20 years. As he turned toward the audience, he received a strong round of applause from town officials and residents for his long service to the town.
While Donegan has opted out, his counterpart from North Branford, Frank J. Forgione, is in the race. Forgione, who is also in his 20th year on the bench, told the Eagle in an interview: “Absolutely, I am running.”
He will be the most qualified and experienced person on the ticket regardless of who the Republicans or Democrats put up. By law only lawyers and members of the Connecticut bar may now run. Forgione is a Republican.
Forgione, 52, is also the administrative judge of the New Haven Regional Probate Court, and is in charge of one of five regional Children’s Court, a court that hears cases under the probate umbrella. His regional court handles cases from nine suburban towns and New Haven.
In an interview Forgione said he was selected “by the judges in the region to develop the children’s court. I have been doing it for six years,” he said. He said his Master’s degree in social work combined with a law degree enables him to “combine both backgrounds.” The cases he hears are among the most difficult and distressing in the system.
While Forgione will be engaged in a contested race, one that for the first time combines two probate districts, he is the early favorite. Donegan said sitting judges may face opponents, but “there are not a lot of situations in the past 160 years where a sitting probate judge has lost an election.” The Branford Probate Court was instituted in 1850.
Still this race is unique because it combines two probate districts. Although the election is eight months away, the contest for the Branford-North Branford judgeship starts soon. Either two or three Branford attorneys are expected to appear before the Democratic Town Committee next week, seeking to become the committee’s candidate. The Republican Town Committee is expected to hear next week from at least one potential candidate as well. No one else has yet announced for the position.
Mini conventions in both North Branford and Branford will be held later in the year but that does not rule out a primary afterward among those vying for the post.
“This ought to be interesting,” said First Selectman Unk DaRos in an interview. In terms of delegates, Branford, by virtue of population, has more delegates than North Branford. “I don’t know exactly how it will work. It will be very interesting to see. Then we will have a general election to decide who the judge will be. It is going to be a good race,” DaRos predicted.
The probate court system, the only one in Connecticut that permits election to the bench, was heading toward financial collapse when the legislature and the governor finally restructured it last June. Unlike any state in the nation, Connecticut had a probate judge in most of its towns and all of its cities, a system financed primarily by the estates of Connecticut residents.
Contrary to popular belief, the probate court’s jurisdiction extends far beyond estates, conservatorships and trusts. The court also has jurisdiction over guardianships, adoptions, civil psychiatric commitments, termination of parental rights and other child related issues. It also serves the mentally ill and the elderly.
Overall the probate system was uneven at best with workloads and compensation of judges dependent in large measure on the geographic location of the court. Small town probate judges might have a small caseload but large compensation. City probate judges might have a large caseload and be underpaid.
The legislature might have put the probate courts within the structure of the superior court in the state. But it did not.
John Langbein, a Yale Law School professor, has been one of the court’s most outspoken critics. He went before the legislature to say the court was “structurally flawed.” He believes the state’s probate courts should have been merged into a specialized division of the superior court. “That solution, widely followed in other states, is what the Uniform Probate Code has long recommended.” But that did not happen.
One change Langbein advocated, that judges be legally trained, was adopted. In the past persons who were not legally trained were permitted to serve as judges despite the complexity of the law surrounding these cases. As of Jan. 5, 2011, those running for probate court must be attorneys who have practiced law for at least 10 years.
Another change was not implemented. Langbein told state legislators that judges should not be permitted to practice law at the same time they hear cases. His concern: potential conflict-of-interest. The legislature did not change that, permitting probate judges to continue to have an outside law practice.
One reason is that the probate courts have typically been part-time.
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Its insane that people without legal training were allowed to run for these positions. Its almost as crazy to run a public election for such a position when the average person doesn't know diddly squat about the law.