I know I have some readers out there in the legal community, so I thought I’d put out a request for information. I’ve heard rumors about a plan afoot from the Indiana Supreme Court which would, as I understand it, require regional cooperation among courts in the same Administrative Rule 3 administrative district whereby judges in counties with low caseloads would preside over cases in counties with high caseloads.
The plan, again according to what I’ve heard, springs from the white paper (pdf) adopted by the Indiana Judicial Conference in 2008.
After browsing the Indiana judiciary website, I have not found anything written that sets forth a policy or requests comments; so, a) maybe it’s nothing more than rumor; and b) if there is some plan involving judges from adjacent counties, perhaps it is more incidental than what I’ve been hearing.
Absent some particular knowledge of any plan, I can’t offer any concrete opinions. But, as a general rule, as a practitioner, I would have concerns that the judges from other courts would be inclined to have my clients and I travel to them even though my cases were pending in Tippecanoe County. (To which I would politely agree, because if a judge says, “you come to me,” you don’t object.) As a county attorney, I would have concerns about how staff support and other resources for the other county’s judge would be allocated if he or she was working on Tippecanoe County cases (or, vice versa).
As a follower of state government, I would have concerns about whether such a plan runs afoul of the General Assembly’s prerogatives under Article 7, sections 7 and 12:
Section 7. Judicial Circuits. The State shall, from time to time, be divided into judicial circuits; and a Judge for each circuit shall be elected by the voters thereof. He shall reside within the circuit and shall have been duly admitted to practice law by the Supreme Court of Indiana; he shall hold his office for the term of six years, if he so long behaves well.
Section 12. Substitution of Judges. The General Assembly may provide, by law, that the Judge of one circuit may hold the Courts of another circuit, in cases of necessity or convenience; and in case of temporary inability of any Judge, from sickness or other cause, to hold the Courts in his circuit, provision may be made, by law, for holding such courts.
As a citizen, I would have concerns about judicial authority for my circuit being routinely exercised by judges elected by citizens of another circuit.
Like I said, I have not found any written notice or description of the particulars of the plan. If I’ve missed it, I would certainly appreciate someone forwarding me a link or a copy. If anyone knows details that aren’t necessarily committed to writing, those would also be appreciated. Thanks for any help.
I’m speculating, of course, but I would believe that to be the case; CJ Shepard made no effort to hide his belief that a unified court system would be the best kind of system for Indiana, just like New York and some other states.
I would expect that to be the next “step”, the first being the statewide Case Management System. In addition, I would expect it to work similar to Senior Judges who travel to the necessary county. The only problem comes from counties who don’t have space to accommodate more than a few trials at once.