When the courthouse was still in the planning stages, some local attorneys advocated adding an extra floor to the building to accommodate the Worcester Law Library, which currently serves more than 35,000 people per year.

But Mulligan recently announced that the state will soon begin the process of searching for a new, offsite location for the library. That location will be determined based on responses to a request-for-proposals that is about to be issued, Mulligan told Lawyers Weekly.

"Obviously, we want to keep it as close as we can to the courthouse," Mulligan said, adding that much will depend on shelving and the weight-bearing capacity of the library.

In his letter to Mulligan, the WCBA's Shea noted that when lawyers have a break during trials, they "frequently go to the law library to check citations, to receive facsimile transmittals from their office or to do research whether by hard volume or online."

Calling it "disappointing" to many members of the Worcester County bar, North Brookfield attorney Damien D. Berthiaume said he found it "hard to believe" there would be a courthouse without a law library.

"The Worcester Law Library is a tremendous resource for everyone in the building," he said. "The librarians are all very helpful, and it's nice to be able to run across the hall and check a case or a statute if you're in recess or before a hearing. It's kind of hard to believe that there's not going to be that kind of access in the courthouse."

But Mulligan disputed the notion that a successful law library must be attached to a courthouse.

"In Norfolk County, the law library is in Norwood but the courthouse is in Dedham," Mulligan pointed out. "[The Norwood library] gets a lot of use, and the attorneys like the location because you can park there — as opposed to [at] the Superior Court."

Other courthouses have no libraries at all, added Mulligan, noting that proposed renovations at the Taunton courthouse call for turning the current law library there into an additional courtroom.

Even promises of locating the Worcester library in close proximity to the new courthouse is not appeasing attorneys.

"Having a law library in a different building will hinder the smooth exercise of justice," remarked Nicholas C. Bazoukas of Worcester. "It is another example of the judicial system ignoring the needs of lawyers."

Another "major concern," according to Shea, is the possible lack of wireless Internet technology — or "Wi-Fi" — in the new courthouse. Shea said he had previously been told that security concerns prevented the installation of Wi-Fi, but wondered whether new advances in security technology might make the feature possible after all.

Mulligan said that the issue of Wi-Fi is being investigated by a committee formed by Trial Court Chief Information Officer Craig D. Burlingame.

"We've asked [the committee] to develop a document defining their business needs and requirements, so we know what is requested of us," said Mulligan, who noted that the committee is examining issues such as security and whether attorneys would be charged for accessing a Wi-Fi Internet signal.

"We want the report of this committee before we make decisions," added Mulligan. "The Worcester lawyers may want one thing, but the Boston lawyers might want something else. We want to get everyone on the same page … We're not making any promises until we get a better sense of what the bar is looking for."

Several lawyers said that having Wi-Fi at the courthouse would lessen the inconvenience of no onsite access to a law library.

"You could check a citation with a WestLaw account," said Berthiaume.

Shea told Lawyers Weekly that WiFi would be "the next best thing to a law library, although we've been blessed with a great library staff that we've come to rely on."

Meanwhile, there is a spot in the current Worcester County courthouse that has Wi-Fi, access: the Worcester County Registry of Probate. However, the registry will not be part of the new courthouse. Though its location has yet to be determined, an employee said that "wherever we go, we will definitely still have Wi-Fi."

Although the new courthouse is being built without public parking facilities, Mulligan said that limited parking will continue to be available at the "old" Worcester courthouse location.

"We'll try to maintain the parking available up at the exterior of 2 Main St.," he said. "But it won't be in perpetuity. We have to maintain that lot, plow it [and] have at least one associate court officer on that site. That remains to be worked out. It is also dependent on where we move the law library. For the short term, parking is available at that lot. We'll have to make some decisions about who will park there and how we do that."

In general, Mulligan said, the state is not in the business of paying for parking lots for urban courthouses.

"We don't have parking in Boston or Cambridge," he noted. "When I sat in Barnstable, I told jurors, 'If you want guaranteed parking, get here early because the lot becomes full around 8:15 a.m.'"

Shea wrote to Mulligan that he was "concerned about the perception in the public's mind that such a large project could go forward without the provision for parking for jurors, witnesses, parties and other visitors to the courthouse."

In an interview with Lawyers Weekly, Shea said he understands that the Trial Court does not provide parking, and that the City of Worcester preferred that private developers meet any parking needs with commercial lots.

Still, Shea said he wonders about handicapped employees, jurors, lawyers and visitors to the court. "I don't understand how we got to this point in the process without a definitive plan."