Trial Court of the Commonwealth, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo: Google maps

It should have been good news, but Massachusetts court officials are silent about a policy aimed at preventing retaliation and discrimination.

The policy followed a case that made statewide news in Massachusetts, when a former drug court clinician filed a 2018 lawsuit against a state judge for allegedly forcing her to perform sex acts on him in chambers.

That judge—Thomas Estes—resigned in June 2018, a day after being suspended indefinitely, according to news reports. He denied the allegations, claiming the sexual encounters were consensual.

And then in 2019—soon after the Estes episode—the Massachusetts Trial Court implemented policies prohibiting discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the court system and created a new Office of Workplace Rights & Compliance, which helped develop a detailed training program for all court judges and staff.

Daniel Sullivan, general counsel for the Trial Court, declined numerous requests for interviews to discuss the policy, and the Trial Court denied a request to provide data on sex harassment and discrimination cases in that state's court system going back seven years. The Trial Court said that, as part of the judicial branch of government, it is not subject to either the Freedom of Information Act or the Massachusetts Public Records Law.

The timing of the court's addressing discrimination within its ranks didn't come as a surprise to some in the legal arena in the Bay State.

While Boston attorney Elisa Filman said she doesn't know for sure whether the new Trial Court policies were in reaction to the Estes case, she said, "What happened with Judge Estes was probably the tipping point."

Filman, a founding partner with Rodman Employment Law, represents employees in disputes with their employers.

"The trial courts are adjudicating cases that are involving employment law like sexual harassment, when things like with Judge Estes is going on behind closed doors," she said. "They have some work to do."

Filman said that while it would have been better for the policies to have been implemented years ago, it's never too late.

"Maybe the Trial Court took culture cues and realized the system's credibility was on the line, and then promulgated this policy to thwart future bad acts," Filman said.

Others said the #MeToo movement could have also played a part in the Trial Court acting when it did.

Tara Swartz, founder of Swartz Law Boston, said the Estes saga, "coupled with the #MeToo movement," could have played a part in the timing of the new rules.

"It's never too late to institute a policy that will help train the workforce to be more knowledgeable of their actions in order to ensure that people are treating each other appropriately in the workplace," said Swartz, an attorney for two decades who said her practice dealing with sex harassment cases has grown over the last few years, in part, due to the #MeToo movement.

Boston attorney Nick Carter, a litigation partner at Todd & Weld, said Friday, "Certainly what is going on nationally with the #MeToo movement and the Black Lives Matter movement impacts the courts, as they do everything else. I'm sure the Trial Court is sensitive to those issues. … But the court system, like every institution, has a way to go."

Carter, also a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association's Judicial Administration Section Counsel, continued: "I think Ralph Gants, the chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, has a keen eye for making the justice system in the state more just."

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