New four-town probate court works well in first year

Written by Macklin Reid, Press Staff
Thursday, 26 January 2012 05:15

“It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already,” said Northern Fairfield County Probate Judge Joseph Egan. “It goes by fast.”

The Northern Fairfield County Probate District combines what were formerly single-town probate courts of Ridgefield, Redding, Bethel and Newtown. Its creation was part of state-mandated cost-cutting consolidation of Connecticut probate districts.

Mr. Egan, Ridgefield’s longtime probate judge, won a Republican primary and district election in November 2010. The court opened in January 2011.

“It’s almost exactly a year. It’s actually working out pretty well,” Judge Egan said.

“We actually opened up 533 new matters last year,” he said. “We probably have about 1,500 open files.”

Open files would include cases begun under the smaller town courts and still going on — for some, it takes years.

“If there’s a trust set up until someone reaches a certain age, the trust could be open for 10 years,” Judge Egan said. “If a child inherits money when they’re two years old, that means that file is going to be open 16 years.”

Judge Egan credits Chief Clerk Jackie Buckle, who’d previously been Ridgefield’s probate clerk, with helping get the new court organized.

Before her eight years in Ridgefield, Ms. Buckle worked in the relatively large probate court in Norwalk.

“She was familiar with how the bigger courts operate, and had certain procedures that she had in mind that we really didn’t do in Ridgefield, but that we do here to get it organized,” Judge Egan said.

The three other clerks on court’s staff are all from local town probate courts that closed in the state’s consolidation. Two are from towns that are part of the new district: former Redding Probate Clerk Laura Homa and former Bethel Probate Clerk Brenda Craig. The clerk from Newtown didn’t want to go from part time to full time, Judge Egan said, so he took on Anna Luccessi, who’d been a clerk in New Fairfield’s court.

It’s working out well.

“It’s been pretty good here. They get along well,” Judge Egan said. “That was probably my only concern, going from one clerk to four, how they would all interact. But it’s worked out well.”

The consolidation meant that what had been small separate court operations in each town were relocated to the Bethel Municipal Center, at 1 School Street, Bethel.

“It’s the old Bethel High School,” he said. “It’s a pretty busy place, they’ve got a gym, a senior center, all the town offices under one roof.

“It’s actually very nice here, which is one of the reasons they picked Bethel.”

The decision where to locate the new court there was made by the selectmen from the four towns. Bethel had a facility that could comfortably accommodate the court, and was also centrally located.

“It just made common sense to put it in the middle of everybody,” Judge Egan said.

The court’s clients — residents of the four towns, and their attorneys — seem comfortable with the location.

“We haven’t had one complaint,” Judge Egan said. “We anticipated people were going to be a little inconvenienced. No one has complained to us.”

The hours are the same as for the rest of the Bethel Municipal Center, 8:30 to 4:30 Monday to Friday.

One reason the relocation hasn’t posed problems, Judge Egan said, is that with the estates and wills that make up most of the probate work, few visits to the court are required.

“Almost 100% of what people do on estates — assuming it’s not contested — they can do through mail,” Judge Egan said. “They really don’t have to come here.”

“The bulk of what we do is still decedents’ estates — wills, administering the wills, and people who don’t have wills,” Judge Egan said.

But the court also hears cases of people who may not be competent to handle their financial and medical affairs.

“Most of the country calls it a guardianship, but in Connecticut we call it a conservatorship,” Judge Egan said. “If someone can’t take care of their finances, can’t really take care of themselves, their physical needs, and they haven’t provided for it elsewhere, they haven’t given someone power of attorney, or named someone a health care representative...

“It’s where someone can make medical decisions for someone else, and get access to medical records,” he said.

Often the situation involves an older person who has medical problems.

“Let’s say an elderly parent was in need of medical care, brought to the hospital. Technically, without some type of legal authority, they’re not supposed to give any information to a child,” Judge Egan said. “So what will happen is the child will come in to the probate court and ask to be named conservator. Of course, the court determines whether to grant the application or not.

“From a practical standpoint, it’s always easier for people to get their affairs in order before the problem occurs. But if they don’t, then they end up coming to us.”

Another aspect of life governed by the probate court are legal changes of name.

“We actually get quite a few of those. We do one or two of those a week, at least,” the judge said.

“A mother comes in who got divorced but at the time of the divorce, because the children, didn’t want to change her name, but now because the kids are older wanted to go back to her maiden name.”

Sometimes divorced mothers will change both their own and their children’s names.

“A lot of them correct mistakes that may have been made on birth certificates. It’s more common than you would think,” he said.

“As part of the process when a person is going through a transgender or sex change, one of the things they have to do is have their name changed,” Judge Egan said.

“I can’t say we have those every day, but we’ve probably done half a dozen.”

Very occasionally people just want to change their names, maybe to stage names, or star names.

“Back in Ridgefield, someone came in and wanted to have just one name, like Madonna or Cher,” he said.

Judge Egan’s four-year term ends in January 2015. To serve again, he’d have to run for office in November 2014. A state age limitation means he couldn’t serve out the term. “You have to retire at age 70,” he said. “At the end of this term I’ll be 68, so I’ll have two years to go.

“That’s a decision I’m going to make, probably next year,” he said.

“My staff wants me to run again.”