When hiring a contractor, it can be difficult for Mainers to get the full picture of their work and any complaints that are lodged against them.
That’s in part because the state’s byzantine court system makes it difficult to see who has civil lawsuits against them. Oversight mostly rests with the attorney general’s office, which publishes little information and has limited authority. These cases can also be difficult for police.
When unraveling the story behind Jake Brown, whose Palermo-based excavating and concrete company faces $400,000 in civil court judgments and more complaints from clients who say Brown owes them money, here are three things we learned about why it is hard to dig up information on contractors.
A convoluted court system
Roughly a decade ago, Maine committed to putting its paper-based court system online. It has only moved forward on a limited basis. Right now, you can look up the types of civil cases facing Brown online in only five courts statewide. To actually view the documents, you still need to visit a courthouse.
“Unfortunately, what we have right now is a system that privileges those that are able to travel across the state, go to courthouses, request certain records, rather than fostering a system that’s more equitable and allows [you] to get those same records online,” Justin Silverman, the executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, said.
That’s especially important in a rural state like Maine. Brown’s court records were scattered around the state in Alfred, Auburn, Belfast and Augusta. Three Bangor Daily News reporters gathered them, but it would be difficult for regular Mainers researching a contractor to do so.
Maine courts allow the option of requesting a statewide records search. However, you must mail in a request and the price for most is $20 per name and per court. Reporters typically rely on clerks to search the system. In Brown’s case, those different searches of the civil system came back with only partial information or none at all.
A spokesperson for Maine’s court system said the goal is to have e-filing in effect for all case types by the end of 2026. But depending on the success of a roll-out of criminal and juvenile cases in March, that timeline might be extended, the spokesperson said.
Few resolutions at the attorney general’s office
There’s little oversight of home contractors in Maine, which is among a minority of states that don’t license general contractors. That has been a perennial topic in the Legislature, where a bill that aimed to do so failed earlier this year. It was backed by Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office, but the construction industry and Gov. Janet Mills’ administration opposed it.
The current system leaves Frey’s office in charge of the industry. It got 560 complaints about home contractors in 2023 and sent 117 of those to mediation, according to WMTW. Yet only eight of those cases were resolved in that venue. That leaves prosecutors or civil courts as the last line of defense, and the latter route costs clients money.
A state website says Mainers can call Frey’s office to see if certain contractors have complaints against them. But the webpage where that information is stored doesn’t appear to have been updated in years. A more up-to-date list of actions taken by Frey’s office lumps contractors in with many other companies.
When asked why the data the office collects on home contractors subject to complaint isn’t public facing and readily accessible, Frey spokesperson Danna Hayes said the office is bound by confidentiality requirements until it files a formal action.
“We are working on removing older parts of our website,” she added.
Criminal allegations are difficult to prove
Putting together a civil case against a home contractor who took money for unfinished work is a matter of providing documentation and seeking a judgment. Proving criminal intent is harder.
There have been recent prosecutions of contractors by Frey’s office, including a man who got three years in prison in 2022 after prosecutors said he took $130,000 in deposits for work he never did. A former Union contractor pleaded guilty in August after being accused of taking $400,000 from 50 clients.
Because the attorney general’s office is available to mediate these kinds of claims, police and prosecutors are hesitant to move forward with criminal cases, Lincoln County Sheriff Todd Brackett said. If it’s clear a contractor had no intentions to honor a contract, Brackett said that could lead to a criminal case, but that intent is hard to prove.
“Oftentimes we end up referring people to their attorney and ask them to settle it by bringing the other party into court in a civil matter rather than a criminal case,” Brackett said. “When those two [criminal and civil] worlds collide, it’s difficult. It’s often frustrating for us; it’s frustrating for the victim.”
