Rumford lawyer Seth Carey appears to be headed for court - to answer a request that he be barred from practicing law.

A justice at the Maine Supreme Judicial Court signed an order Tuesday that starts the ball rolling toward a hearing at which an attorney representing the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar is expected to seek temporary suspension of Carey's law license.

Justice Andrew Mead scheduled a July 2 phone conference for attorneys in the case to set a date for a hearing and settle other issues, said Matthew Pollack, the court's clerk.

At the hearing, Aria Eee, the attorney representing the Board of Overseers, would serve as prosecutor. Stephen Chute, a lawyer in the Rumford office where Carey works, would represent Carey. Mead would preside over the case as judge.

Eee would present her case to Mead, entering testimony and evidence supporting her claim that Carey's license should be suspended.

Chute would be allowed to cross examine Eee's witnesses and call his own witnesses and present his own evidence supporting Carey's defense.

Either side could appeal Mead's eventual ruling in the case. The appeal would be heard by the full Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Mead would be expected to recuse himself.

The case stems from a complaint lodged in April by a Rumford judge who said she was concerned about Carey's competency. She said she wouldn't appoint Carey to represent defendants in her courtroom because she was concerned that he would be "constitutionally ineffective," Eee wrote in her petition to the court.

District Court Judge Valerie Stanfill wrote a letter to the board detailing her observations of Carey as he practiced law in her courtroom.

Carey is facing possible sanctions on five complaints from a different judge and three Rumford lawyers brought last year. A board grievance panel is expected to rule on those complaints soon. If they recommend the complaint be forwarded to a law court justice, Mead could end up hearing those complaints at the same time as the one brought by Judge Stanfill, Pollack said.

During the hearing on the earlier complaints, Carey had offered to take a break from practicing law and take courses to improve his understanding of the law.

Bar counsel Eee said she was seeking a temporary suspension of Carey's license until all of the complaints are finally settled.