A practitioner's record for the bench
Ten years in family and civil court — not as an observer, but as the attorney who watched the system move and stall. Raines is running because she knows what a well-run courtroom looks like.
A decade inside family and civil court
Jessica Parker Raines spent ten years practicing family and civil law in the First Parish district — representing clients, arguing motions, and watching how judicial decisions land in real lives.
She has moved cases through contested hearings, mediated settlements under pressure, and worked within a court system carrying a backlog that delays outcomes for the people who can least afford to wait.
That firsthand experience — not theory — is what she brings to Division B. She has seen the procedural gaps that slow courts down, and she has concrete ideas for closing them.
Listen carefully. Apply the law. Explain it plainly.
A ruling that neither party can understand is not a ruling — it is a postponed argument. Raines holds that every decision from Division B should be readable by the people it affects, not just the attorneys in the room.
Measurable results. A clear standard.
Case backlogs are not an inevitable feature of the court — they are a management problem with real solutions. Raines's work reducing case timelines in contested family matters is the record she stands on.