Retired Baltimore County Circuit Judge Keith R. Truffer is being pulled back into the fray, this time to referee one of the largest waves of litigation Maryland courts have ever seen.
Chief Justice Matthew J. Fader has tapped Truffer as a special magistrate to manage case coordination in the sprawling Child Victims Act lawsuits filed against Maryland state agencies. His assignment: streamline discovery and other pretrial wrangling across roughly 1,200 complaints involving more than 12,000 plaintiffs, so dozens of circuit courts are not issuing conflicting orders or rerunning the same fights.
In an administrative order filed May 14, 2026, Fader formally appointed Truffer as the “Case Management Special Magistrate” for the State CVA Litigation and tasked him with crafting a consolidated case management plan. The order says the move is meant to “promote the prompt, fair, and efficient scheduling and resolution” of the litigation while still preserving each circuit court’s authority over its own cases.
The appointment followed a request from Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown, who told the high court that different courts were taking inconsistent approaches and urged centralized coordination. Brown also warned of a nearly 70-year allegation timeframe and an estimated approximately 16–20 million pages of documents already identified, according to reporting by The Daily Record.
The shakeup comes after a one-two punch at the State House. The Child Victims Act of 2023 wiped out old time limits for many abuse lawsuits, and a 2025 law later narrowed state liability for claims filed after May 31, 2025, a change that helped trigger a rush of filings, AP News reported. Earlier, the Maryland Supreme Court decision that opened the courthouse to decades-old claims had already guaranteed the courts would be busy and the policy fights heated.
Not everyone lining up for those courtrooms is thrilled about putting a single magistrate in the middle. Eight attorneys representing survivors sent a letter opposing the appointment, warning it could add bureaucracy and slow down individual resolutions, as reported by The Daily Record.
How the magistrate will work
Under the order, Truffer’s authority centers on coordinating discovery across the State CVA Litigation. He can issue scheduling orders and protocols for producing and exchanging documents and electronically stored information, set procedures for handling juvenile records, resolve discovery disputes that show up in multiple cases, and help organize plaintiffs and defendants so the same work is not repeated dozens of times.
The consolidated case management plan he develops will be drafted in consultation with county administrative judges and counsel and must be reviewed and approved by the chief justice. The order explicitly says that individual circuit courts keep jurisdiction over their own cases.
Legal implications
Supporters of the move say a central traffic cop should cut down on duplicative depositions and clashing rulings that can stretch discovery into a never-ending saga. Critics counter that centralization could bog things down and concentrate too much power over how and when survivors’ cases move.
As a March report on the ruling reviving long-blocked claims noted, the Supreme Court’s earlier decision left courts and lawmakers scrambling to figure out how to stack, sort, and schedule hundreds of related actions. Truffer is expected to start working with judges and litigants as he builds the consolidated plan.
He serves at the pleasure of the chief justice, and the order directs him to move quickly while avoiding unnecessary delays as discovery unfolds across jurisdictions. In other words, the clock is ticking, and so is the paperwork.
