Court, District Court

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court may assign a Justice or Active Retired Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to sit in the Superior Court or the District Court, and when so directed the justice has authority and jurisdiction in the Superior Court or the District Court as if the justice were a regular justice or judge of that court. When assigned under this section, the justice may hear all matters and issue all orders, notices, decrees and judgments that any Justice of the Superior Court or Judge of the District Court is authorized to hear and issue.

The order of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court directing a Justice or an Active Retired Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to sit in the Superior Court or the District Court must be filed with the Executive Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court, but need not be docketed or otherwise recorded in any case heard by that justice.

Sec. 3. Effective date. That section of this Act that amends the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 4, section 2-A, as amended by Public Law 1999, chapter 547, Part B, section 1 and affected by section 80, takes effect March 15, 2001.

Emergency clause. In view of the emergency cited in the preamble, this Act takes effect when approved, except as otherwise indicated.

SUMMARY

Public Law 1999, chapter 731, Part ZZZ, section 3, concerning court unification, repealed and replaced the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 4, section 105, providing for the civil jurisdiction of the Superior Court. That legislation eliminated the jurisdiction of a single Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to sit in the Superior Court. Title 4, section 2-A presently provides for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to assign a justice or active retired justice to sit in the District Court and the Administrative Court until March 15, 2001, and the District Court effective March 15, 2001. Instead of amending Title 4, section 105 to correct the inadvertent error in the court unification legislation, this bill places in Title 4, section 2-A the authority of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to appoint a single Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court to sit in the Superior Court.