Rule 80B and Nonstatutory Judicial Review of Administrative Action in Maine

The 1967 amendments to rules 80B and 81 of the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure (MRCP) constitute significant and potentially far-reaching changes in judicial review of administrative action in Maine. Prior to 1959, nonstatutory judicial review of administrative action in Maine was available only by extraordinary writ. An alternate means of securing judicial review was provided by the original rule 80B of the MRCP adopted in 1959, but because of an apparent overlap of those two procedures, 80B was amended in 1967. That amendment made rule 80B the sole means of obtaining nonstatutory review of all governmental action and a concurrent amendment of 81(c) abolished the extraordinary writs as a means of securing such review.

Rule 80B as amended provides the judiciary with a unique opportunity to draw upon established principles of judicial review and to create from them a rational and workable method of review. This comment advances reasons why a more comprehensible and practical review method should be adopted and how it could be employed.