Ethics
Retired California justice faces disciplinary fees for allegedly taking too lengthy to resolve circumstances
June 17, 2025, 10:53 am CDT
Former Justice William J. Murray Jr. of the Third District Court docket of Enchantment in California has been accused of delaying tons of of case choices for years. (Photograph from the Judicial Department of California)
A retired state appellate justice in California has been accused of delaying tons of 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 Court docket 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 responsibility and a sample of continual delay” by failing to promptly resolve or dismiss 355 circumstances inside a yr after he was assigned a case or after a case was totally 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 no less than 16 circumstances. This allegedly contains an aged sufferer of prison securities fraud who died earlier than Murray issued an opinion within the case, which he had been assigned 4 years earlier.
“You didn’t decrease the affect of delay by prioritizing the delayed issues and taking into consideration the impact of delay on the events in some circumstances,” in response to the fee. “Your neglect of responsibility and sample of persistent decisional delay, as described above, … prejudiced civil litigants and prison defendants. It additionally, at minimal, created the looks that applicable appellate evaluate was impeded or denied.”
The fee alleged that Murray was conscious of and infrequently mentioned his case backlog with different members of the court docket. It mentioned “corrective measures,” which included decreasing the variety of circumstances and sophisticated 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 responsibility and decisional delay … imposed a larger workload on analysis attorneys and different panel justices who had been required to conduct further analysis and evaluation, a few of which was crucial as the results of your delay in deciding the circumstances,” the fee mentioned.
Murray is represented by Miller Waxler, in response to Regulation.com, which has protection of the fee’s fees towards the retired justice. The regulation agency advised the publication that Murray had labored towards a potential settlement with the Fee on Judicial Efficiency for greater than a yr after he retired. The agency additionally mentioned Murray was disillusioned by the fees however regarded ahead to presenting his case.
Regulation.com mentioned Gregory Dresser, the fee’s government director and chief counsel, declined to reply why disciplinary fees weren’t filed towards Murray till three years after he retired.
“We imagine 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 Regulation.com. “We additionally imagine that the misconduct through which Justice Murray engaged is severe.”
Regulation.com famous that the fees towards Murray stem from an investigation into a number of justices on the appellate court docket who allegedly allowed circumstances to sit down unattended for years earlier than appearing on them.
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