Court offices to be closed to the public next week

Court clerks’ offices throughout the state will be closed to the public from 8 a.m. to noon next week.

Courtroom activity also will be kept to a minimum between Monday, March 29, and Friday, April 2, according to Ted Glessner, state court administrator.

Typically, two administrative weeks a year – one in March and another in September – have been set aside to allow court clerks and their staffs to catch up on paperwork by closing out cases, docketing information on current cases and updating information on fines, Glessner said Tuesday.

Clerks’ offices have been closed between 8 and 10 a.m. in the past, but will be closed an additional two hours this year because of staff shortages in some courthouses.

“We’re in worse shape now than we have been in the past,” Glessner said of the doubling of the number of hours the offices would be closed to the public.

Because of the recent budget crisis, 29 vacant positions, part-time and full-time, have not been filled, according to Glessner. He added that it appears unlikely the positions would be funded in the next budget cycle to begin on July 1.

“The first priority this year is the warrants,” he said Tuesday. “We need to do a warrant reconciliation to make sure the warrants that are in place are appropriate and that there are no mistakes.

Glessner said administrative priorities for the week were set by his office in consultation with the court clerks and Maine Supreme Judicial Court Judge Leigh Saufley, who is the chief administrator for the state’s court system.

The September administrative week has not been set.