The Seven-Year Delay
Perhaps the most shocking fact to surface in these hearings: one case, that required a final ruling, languished before Judge Bordeaux for seven years before a ruling was entered. Seven years is not justice delayed — it is justice denied. In probate court, where families are often grieving or struggling with guardianship, inheritance, or medical decision-making, a delay of even months can cause lasting damage. Estates sit unresolved, assets remain locked up, and vulnerable individuals are left in limbo. For litigants, such delays are more than inconveniences — they are life-altering harms.
“It is outrageous. Seven years! That’s unacceptable,” one observer told me, and I couldn’t agree more.
Judge Bordeaux has admitted the delays but denies that they rise to “willful misconduct” or “conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.” Instead, he blames the county’s lack of funding. “It was rather glaring that the office he inherited was underfunded and understaffed,” testified Pat Monahan, a former county official and Bordeaux’s longtime friend.
But that defense rings hollow. What Bordeaux fails to understand is that we don’t need him anymore. He can leave all of his cases right where they are, and somebody else can come in and take over. His type of “lazy judging” is not needed on the bench. He wasn’t getting work done then, and he has instilled no confidence that if left in place he would do any better.
