MSBA UPDATES
| MSBA IN THE COMMUNITY
Members Across the State CUMBERLAND
PORT DEPOSIT
FIGHTING ADDICTION IN ALLEGANY COUNTY
FRUITLAND
As a native of Cumberland MD the Hon. Jeffrey Getty returned to his hometown after serving as a U.S. Attorney in Baltimore. Before being appointed to the bench his practice focused mainly on commercial litigation and medical malpractice defense. He now serves as a judge on the Fourth Circuit Court for Allegany County. As a reaction to what he saw on the bench judge Getty helped start a drug court to address addiction in his community. We talked to him about his work fighting addiction. You recently started a drug court program in Allegheny County. Can you tell me what motivated you tackle drug addiction? There was an effort before I was appointed to the bench to try and organize a drug court. What was missing from that was a circuit court judge who had a willingness to get involved in and thought that there was a need and wanted to explore it. When I went on the bench I had not really done very much criminal law and certainly in the last 10 or 15 years I had done almost none. I was really surprised when I got on the bench that virtually every criminal case had a drug component to it. That is also true in the domestic cases there was almost always drug issues. Certainly, that’s true in juvenile cases. So, I decided I was going to have to get myself familiar with what recovery is and what that process entails. As I understand it drug court is a pretty intensive program that combines therapy, monitoring and verification while helping people work toward managing their addiction. What kind of results can you except from that type of commitment? If you can get them through the program, and it's sometimes 18 to 24 months as a program, their chances of reoffending statewide or is down under 20 percent. There is no secret at all that almost everybody who comes into drug court comes into drug court because their alternative is to sit in the Division of Corrections and they would like to explore another alternative. When they get into the program if they can get clean and sober for a lot of these people it would be 10 years ago was the last time they can remember not using opioids. They actually prove to themselves that there is a possibility to do this. How do you measure success? In some ways, we try to measure success the same way they measure success with cancer treatments. You want to have increasingly long periods of time and if you can get somebody to a year sobriety then WEB EXTRA their chances of getting BACK WHERE HE STARTED to three years sobriety is Listen to Judge Getty share how his just statistically improved. legal career started and came back Convincing these people that to Cumberland. they can learn to live a life that is free of opioid dependency VISIT MSBA.ORG/JGETTY is is half the battle. 10
MSBA.ORG | SPRING 2019
BRINGING ATTORNEYS TOGETHER AT THE LOWER SHORE MEET AND GREET March 28, 2019: As the sun slowly set over the Wicomico river attorneys from across the lower shore converged on Brew River in Salisbury Maryland for a chance to meet some of the MSBA leadership and hear an update on the MSBA’s activity. The MSBA partnered with the Wicomico, Worcester and Somerset County bars to host this event. MSBA board member Steve Rakow explained why these types of events are important “Any time you can share information among practitioners is great. The networking is good. We’re seeing people outside of our normal zone. Which is the courthouse or litigation. It’s a time to relax and build that camaraderie.” Attendees enjoyed drinks and refreshments before hearing a business update from MSBA president the Hon. Keith Truffer and Executive Director Victor Velazquez. These leaders highlighted the MSBA’s new technology, staff and expanded services. They also answered questions from the crowd. Gill Allen, President of the Wicomico County Bar was glad to see the state bar make its presence known on the lower shore. “I think it’s great to see the state bar is focused on some of the smaller more rural areas of the state… I think it’s great to get attorneys that might be outside the more metropolitan areas involved in state bar membership and all the benefits state bar membership brings” WEB EXTRA
MSBA IS EVERYWHERE See what happened during our meet up in Salisbury. VISIT MSBA.ORG/LOWER-SHORE-VIDEO