Plain Docket https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/ Plain English on Maine public records, the human rights commission, licensing boards, courts and how to read a decision. Information only, not legal advice. en-us What counts as a public record in Mainehttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/public-records/what-is-a-public-record/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/public-records/what-is-a-public-record/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000What the access statute and the state’s own access page actually say a public record is, and what they leave to be read elsewhere. How a public records request proceeds, step by stephttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/public-records/how-a-request-works/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/public-records/how-a-request-works/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Acknowledgement in five working days, a good faith estimate of the time frame, then the record or a refusal: the sequence Title 1, section 408-A sets out. What a records request costs, and when money is asked firsthttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/public-records/fees-and-advance-payment/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/public-records/fees-and-advance-payment/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Two free hours of staff time, twenty five dollars an hour after that, ten cents a page and a hundred dollar threshold, in the statute’s own words. What happens when a request is refusedhttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/public-records/when-a-request-is-refused/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/public-records/when-a-request-is-refused/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000A refusal is not the end of the procedure: the statute makes it appealable, and this page sets out what the text says and what it does not. What a state human rights commission actually doeshttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/human-rights-commission/what-the-commission-does/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/human-rights-commission/what-the-commission-does/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000An investigating body, not a court: the areas it covers, the recommendation its investigators make, and the vote it takes in a public meeting. How a complaint moves from filing to a votehttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/human-rights-commission/how-a-complaint-moves/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/human-rights-commission/how-a-complaint-moves/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000A copy to the respondent, about a month to answer, an investigator, a report, seventeen days to disagree in writing, then a vote in open session. How to read an investigator’s reporthttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/human-rights-commission/reading-an-investigators-report/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/human-rights-commission/reading-an-investigators-report/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000A summary of both sides and a recommendation on reasonable grounds: what the document contains, what weight it carries, and what it decides. The right to sue, and the deadlines around ithttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/human-rights-commission/right-to-sue-and-deadlines/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/human-rights-commission/right-to-sue-and-deadlines/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000After one hundred and eighty days a complainant may request a right to sue, which dismisses the administrative file. The published deadlines, quoted exactly. What a professional licensing board is, and who creates ithttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/licensing-boards/what-a-board-is/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/licensing-boards/what-a-board-is/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000A board created by a public authority is not a trade association. What that difference changes about its powers and about what it must publish. What a licensing board publishes about those it regulateshttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/licensing-boards/what-a-board-publishes/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/licensing-boards/what-a-board-publishes/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Directories, disciplinary decisions with names, hearing schedules, roster totals, certificates of good standing: the public face of professional regulation. How professional discipline becomes a public documenthttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/licensing-boards/how-discipline-becomes-public/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/licensing-boards/how-discipline-becomes-public/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Discipline that ends in a published order enters the record under the name of the person disciplined. Why that is deliberate, and what it is not evidence of. The anatomy of a written decisionhttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/reading-decisions/anatomy-of-a-decision/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/reading-decisions/anatomy-of-a-decision/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000The parts of a decision and the clocks attached to each stage. The pages read publish no standard anatomy of a written decision. Why the summary at the top is not the rulinghttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/reading-decisions/what-a-headnote-is/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/reading-decisions/what-a-headnote-is/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000A summary at the top of a decision describes the ruling; what decides is a vote, an order or a disposition. The pages read do not describe headnotes at all. How a legal citation is builthttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/reading-decisions/how-citations-work/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/reading-decisions/how-citations-work/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Title, section, subsection: how the statutory citations quoted on this site are built, from Title 1, section 408-A to 5 M.R.S. section 4566(3). Published, unpublished, and what follows from the differencehttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/reading-decisions/published-and-unpublished/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/reading-decisions/published-and-unpublished/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000What the courts page, the access statute, the Commission and the Bar publish, and what none of them publishes. An official page’s silence is checkable too. What a docket is, and what it is nothttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/courts-and-dockets/what-a-docket-is/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/courts-and-dockets/what-a-docket-is/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000A docket is a running list, not a courtroom and not a case. Why the word causes so much confusion, and what a docket entry records. How the Maine courts fit togetherhttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/courts-and-dockets/how-the-courts-fit-together/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/courts-and-dockets/how-the-courts-fit-together/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Law Court, Superior Court, District Court and the specialised dockets, described in the words the Judicial Branch publishes about each of them. Where case papers live once a matter is filedhttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/courts-and-dockets/finding-a-case-file/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/courts-and-dockets/finding-a-case-file/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Seven bodies named on one page of the Judicial Branch site, the kind of matter each one takes, and the access rules that page does not publish. The official sources, and why they beat any summaryhttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/where-to-look/official-free-sources/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/where-to-look/official-free-sources/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000Statutes, agency procedure pages and court sites publish their own rules for free. What each kind of source is good for, and how fast summaries go stale. What a reference site cannot do for a readerhttps://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/where-to-look/what-a-reference-site-cannot-do/https://smithelliott.comsmithelliott.com/where-to-look/what-a-reference-site-cannot-do/Sun, 06 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0000The line between explaining a published procedure and advising a person, why it exists, and what sits on the other side of it.