Retired California justice faces disciplinary fees for allegedly taking too lengthy to resolve circumstances

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Retired California justice faces disciplinary fees for allegedly taking too lengthy to resolve circumstances

By Amanda Robert

June 17, 2025, 10:53 am CDT

A retired state appellate justice in California has been accused of delaying a whole lot of case choices for years.

The California Fee on Judicial Efficiency mentioned Monday it launched formal proceedings towards former Justice William J. Murray Jr. of the Third District Courtroom of Enchantment in California, who retired in 2022 after serving for 12 years.

Among the many fee’s fees, filed June 10, Murray “engaged in a neglect of obligation and a sample of continual delay” by failing to promptly resolve or dismiss 355 circumstances inside a 12 months after he was assigned a case or after a case was absolutely briefed. The fee mentioned two of his circumstances, considered one of which was a juvenile matter, weren’t determined for greater than eight years. It mentioned greater than 100 others had been delayed between three and 7 years.

The fee additionally famous that whereas “all protracted decisional delay damages the general public’s esteem for the judiciary,” Murray’s decisional delays “resulted in precise prejudice” to events in at the very least 16 circumstances. This allegedly consists of an aged sufferer of felony securities fraud who died earlier than Murray issued an opinion within the case, which he had been assigned 4 years earlier.

“You didn’t reduce the impression of delay by prioritizing the delayed issues and bearing in mind the impact of delay on the events in some circumstances,” in accordance with the fee. “Your neglect of obligation and sample of persistent decisional delay, as described above, … prejudiced civil litigants and felony defendants. It additionally, at minimal, created the looks that acceptable appellate evaluation was impeded or denied.”

The fee alleged that Murray was conscious of and infrequently mentioned his case backlog with different members of the courtroom. It mentioned “corrective measures,” which included lowering the variety of circumstances and complicated assignments, didn’t resolve his backlog. It additionally mentioned circumstances had been reassigned to different justices, and in a number of circumstances, one other justice requested to be reassigned from a panel that included Murray due to concern about his decisional delays.

“Your neglect of obligation and decisional delay … imposed a higher workload on analysis attorneys and different panel justices who had been required to conduct extra analysis and evaluation, a few of which was needed as the results of your delay in deciding the circumstances,” the fee mentioned.

Murray is represented by Miller Waxler, in accordance with Legislation.com, which has protection of the fee’s fees towards the retired justice. The regulation agency informed the publication that Murray had labored towards a doable settlement with the Fee on Judicial Efficiency for greater than a 12 months after he retired. The agency additionally mentioned Murray was disillusioned by the costs however seemed ahead to presenting his case.

Legislation.com mentioned Gregory Dresser, the fee’s govt director and chief counsel, declined to reply why disciplinary fees weren’t filed towards Murray till three years after he retired.

“We consider we are able to show, by clear and convincing proof, the misconduct alleged within the discover of formal proceedings,” Dresser mentioned in an electronic mail to Legislation.com. “We additionally consider that the misconduct by which Justice Murray engaged is severe.”

Legislation.com famous that the costs towards Murray stem from an investigation into a number of justices on the appellate courtroom who allegedly allowed circumstances to sit down unattended for years earlier than appearing on them.

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