Jeremy stood in the fifth-floor courtroom, fighting to keep a 14-year-old girl from inheriting anything from his twin brother’s small estate.

The twin, Joshua, didn’t have a will when he died in a 2024 motorcycle accident. But during his years in prison, he sent cards and letters to a young girl he barely knew, saying he thought about her daily, calling her his “princess.”

Jeremy, out now after his own stretch in prison, was having none of it.

“I am here to say the child is my child,” he said. “That makes this messy.”

Judge Juliet G. Fisher said she’d heard nothing like it in her 11 years on the Baltimore County Orphans’ Court, and wasn’t sure any other Maryland judge had either.

“That makes this very messy,” she agreed.

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Feud between Anne Arundel judges heads toward finale. Unfortunately, they dragged me into it.

Aug 5, 2025

Welcome to Maryland’s Orphans’ Courts, the most obscure part of our judicial system. By some accounts, Baltimore County’s three-judge court in Towson is one of the busiest in the state.

So busy that when Fisher and the other two judges asked for a raise, the administration backed it.

“After careful consideration of your request, and in consultation with the County Executive,” Administrative Officer D’Andrea L. Walker wrote in January, “we are pleased to support an increase that reflects equitable and competitive compensation based on the responsibilities and workload of the Orphans Court Judges.”

Starting July 1, each of the three elected judges got a $30,000 raise.

One problem.

By boosting the judges’ salaries 18 months before their four-year terms end, the administration, now under County Executive Katherine Klausmeier, and the County Council may have violated the Maryland Constitution.

It’s just another example of how these tiny courts, created in 1777, are truly the orphans of the Maryland Judiciary. Three counties have abandoned them as an anachronism, replacing them with Circuit Court judges.

In Anne Arundel, two of the sitting judges face misconduct charges and could be removed. The Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities subpoenaed me for its hearing, but dropped the demand after one of the judges agreed that I accurately quoted her.

The system could change. The new Task Force to Study Fiduciary Adjudication in Maryland will examine these courts starting later this year and make recommendations to the General Assembly.

The Maryland Judiciary dropped this unwanted foundling on county and city government doorsteps years ago. Raises, when they come, are approved by county governments in one half of the state, by the state legislature in the other.

The court is part of the judiciary and yet, not. It’s part of county and city government and yet, not.

No wonder that when the Baltimore County judges asked then-County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. for a raise in October, no one may have recognized the potential legal landmine. The court was celebrating the recent appointment of its first Black judge, Michelle Arvin-Greer.

“We are particularly excited that after far too many years our Bench now reflects that commitment, and we thank you for your support,” Chief Judge Arthur M. Frank and the others wrote. “Inasmuch as DEI involves the obvious, it also addresses inequities in compensation.”

That the ban on midterm raises — created to prevent using raises and pay cuts as political weapons — applies to city and county elected officials appears widely accepted.

When Anne Arundel County raised Orphans’ Court judges’ salaries by roughly $20,000 in 2022, it set them to take effect after the elections that year.

When District Court judges got a raise in 2019, the Queen Anne’s County attorney said the sheriff’s pay had to go up because they are linked by local law. But not till after the 2022 elections.

Consulted by the county, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office agreed.

Even Baltimore County follows the rule. When County Council members approved raises for the council in 2022, they had to wait until being re-elected to collect.

None of the Baltimore County Orphans’ Court judges would comment on the raises. The county released the letters but did not respond to my questions about the constitutionality of the pay increases.

If no one challenges the raises, Frank will collect $105,000 a year, Fisher and Michelle Arvin-Greer $100,000.

Even though the three judges take turns sitting for weeklong stretches, they probably deserve it.

This may be an obscure court, but it is anything but trivial. The court supervises estates, and family fights over money, property and insurance can get ugly.

In Towson, the judge was set to name a personal representative and consider a request by the child’s mother to add her daughter to Joshua’s estate.

A childhood friend of the twins, the mom denied ever having sex with Jeremy — “100%.”

“I had no idea this was going to be a reality for me,” she testified, “and my name is being trashed in the neighborhood.”

Judge Fisher tried to navigate the inability of DNA testing to determine which identical twin is the father. She weighed the dead man’s words.

She considered the arguments of the girl’s mother and her attorney while explaining to Jeremy, representing himself, how court proceedings work.

All the while, she referred to a lawbook, quoting sections on perceptions of paternity.

Then Jeremy called his mother to the stand. She dropped a new bombshell — testifying her late son couldn’t have children.

The exasperated judge considered that the breaking point and set another hearing in November. She told both sides to bring evidence and witnesses.

“I think we’re just at the point where we don’t have enough evidence to render a decision,” Fisher said.

Her judgment was based on her years as a probate attorney. But only Baltimore and Prince George’s counties require Orphans’ Court judges to be lawyers.

Walker, the Baltimore County administrative officer, used language familiar to anyone who’s gotten half a raise to explain why the county wouldn’t increase judges’ retirement benefits.

Wait and see.

“These systemic issues require continued dialogue and collaborative efforts to address long-term challenges while supporting the Orphan Court’s critical work,” she wrote.

All three judges have filed for election in 2026, running as a slate.