An Act To Provide for Direct Appeals under the Maine Juvenile Code to the Supreme Judicial Court
Maine Legislature, Session 127, LD 0416
Committee: Judiciary
Sponsors: DION, BECK, FREDETTE, FREY, GATTINE, HOBBINS, TUCKER
Amends: 15 MRSA §1, 15 MRSA §3401, 15 MRSA §3402, 15 MRSA §3403, 15 MRSA §3405, 15 MRSA §3407

Legislative Document 
No. 416 
H.P. 283 
House of Representatives, February 12, 2015 
An Act To Provide for Direct Appeals under the Maine Juvenile 
Code to the Supreme Judicial Court 
Reference to the Committee on Judiciary suggested and ordered printed. 
ROBERT B. HUNT 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative DION of Portland. 
Cosponsored by Representatives: BECK of Waterville, FREDETTE of Newport, FREY of 
Bangor, GATTINE of Westbrook, HOBBINS of Saco, TUCKER of Brunswick. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  15 MRSA §1, sub-§2, ¶D, as enacted by PL 1999, c. 731, Pt. ZZZ, §9 and 
affected by §42, is repealed. 
Sec. 2.  15 MRSA §3401, sub-§1, as repealed and replaced by PL 1979, c. 512, 
§8, is amended to read: 
1.  Structure. Except as otherwise provided, appeals from the juvenile court shall be 
are to the Superior Supreme Judicial Court and appeals from the Superior Court shall be 
to the Law Court. 
Sec. 3.  15 MRSA §3402, as amended by PL 2013, c. 234, §11, is further amended 
to read: 
§3402.  Appeals to Supreme Judicial Court 
1.  Matters for appeal.  Appeals of the following matters may be taken from the 
juvenile court to the Superior Supreme Judicial Court by a party specified in subsection 2: 
A.  An adjudication, provided that no as long as the appeal shall be is taken until after 
an order of disposition; 
B.  An order of disposition, or of any subsequent order modifying disposition, for an 
abuse of discretion; and 
D.  A detention order entered pursuant to section 3203-A, subsection 5 or any refusal 
to alter a detention order upon petition of the juvenile pursuant to section 3203-A, 
subsection 11, for abuse of discretion, provided that the appeal must be handled 
expeditiously. 
2.  Who may appeal. An appeal may be taken by the following parties:  
A.  The juvenile; or 
B.  The juvenile's parents, guardian or legal custodian on behalf of the juvenile, if the 
juvenile is not emancipated and the juvenile does not wish to appeal. 
2-A.  Appeal from a bind-over order of the juvenile court.  A bind-over order of 
the juvenile court by a party specified in subsection 2 may be reviewed only by the 
Supreme Judicial Court pursuant to an appeal of a judgment of conviction following 
bind-over. 
3.  Appeals by the State. The State may appeal from a decision or order of the 
juvenile court to the Supreme Judicial Court to the same extent and in the same manner as 
in criminal cases under section 2115-A.  The State may appeal from the juvenile court to 
the Superior Supreme Judicial Court for the failure of the juvenile court to order a bind-
over. 
4.  Stays and releases. On an appeal pursuant to subsection 1, paragraphs A and B, 
the Superior Supreme Judicial Court shall consider a stay of execution and release 
pending the appeal. 
5.  Time for appeals.  An appeal from the juvenile court to the Superior Supreme 
Judicial Court must be taken within 7 days after the entry of an order of disposition or 
other appealed order or such further time as the Supreme Judicial Court may provide 
pursuant to a rule of court. 
Sec. 4.  15 MRSA §3403, as repealed and replaced by PL 1979, c. 512, §10, is 
amended to read: 
§3403.  Rules for appeals 
Procedure for appeals from the juvenile court to the Superior Supreme Judicial Court, 
including provision for a record, subject to section 3405, shall be is as provided by rule 
promulgated adopted by the Supreme Judicial Court. 
Sec. 5.  15 MRSA §3405, as amended by PL 1997, c. 645, §14, is further amended 
to read: 
§3405.  Scope of review on appeal; record 
1.  Scope of review. Review on all appeals from juvenile court to Superior the 
Supreme Judicial Court shall be is for errors of law or abuses of discretion. The Superior 
Supreme Judicial Court may affirm, reverse or modify any order of the Juvenile Court 
juvenile court or remand for further proceedings. The Superior Supreme Judicial Court 
shall may enter a new order of disposition if it finds that the Juvenile Court's juvenile 
court's disposition was an abuse of discretion. 
2.  Record on appeals. In appeals taken pursuant to section 3402, subsection 1, 
paragraphs A and B, review must be on the basis of the record of the proceedings in 
Juvenile Court juvenile court. In the interest of justice, the Superior Supreme Judicial 
Court may order that the record must consist of:  
A.  The untranscribed sound recording of the proceedings; or 
B.  An agreed or settled statement of facts with the consent of the parties. 
3.  Record on appeals of detention orders. In appeals taken pursuant to section 
3402, subsection 1, paragraph D, the court shall order a review by the most expeditious of 
the following methods that is consistent with the interests of justice:  
A.  The untranscribed sound recording of the detention hearing; 
B.  Evidence presented to the Superior Court trial court, provided as long as the scope 
of review shall be is as specified in subsection 1; 
C.  A transcribed record; or 
D.  A record consisting of a statement of facts as described in subsection 2, paragraph 
B. 
Sec. 6.  15 MRSA §3407, as amended by PL 1997, c. 645, §§15 and 16, is 
repealed. 
SUMMARY 
The purpose of this bill is to eliminate duplicative appeals from the juvenile court.  
Under current law, all appeals from adjudications in juvenile court go first to the Superior 
Court, with a second appeal available at the Supreme Judicial Court. This bill provides 
instead that appeals are brought directly to the Supreme Judicial Court.