PORTLAND — A judge said today he will likely allow the social workers, counselors and other affiliates of Possibilities Counseling to band together in a class-action lawsuit against the mental health care agency and its former billing company, Affiliate Funding. 

However, there will also be criteria that will limit who can join such a suit, the Judge Andrew M. Horton said. The two sides will submit their arguments regarding that criteria in court over the next week.

Located on Center Street in Auburn, Possibilities Counseling had about 550 affiliate therapists and case managers serving 10,000 mental health clients around Maine. Possibilities was supposed to bill the state and private insurance agencies on behalf of the affiliates and pay them.

Last fall, a pair of surprise Department of Health and Human Services inspections found that 16 of 18 office staffers had walked out and had largely been replaced by the untrained family and friends of Possibilities owner Wendy Bergeron. The state issued a conditional license and gave Bergeron a slate of conditions she had to meet over the next year. Instead, Bergeron closed the agency.

During that time, hundreds of affiliates claimed Possibilities did not pay them for services. Some said the company owed them hundred to thousands of dollars in back payments for several months worth of work.

Since then, through a court ordered “referee,” nearly all of the affiliates have been paid.

Still at issue — and possibly the focus of a class action lawsuit — are interest on the recent payments, attorney’s fees and agency fees that the affiliates feel Possibilities shouldn’t get to keep.