I just received a notice from the Tippecanoe County Bar Association that:
[T]here are efforts being made by the Administrative Office of the United States to close the federal courthouses in Terre Haute and Lafayette. This means the loss of the U.S. District Court, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, the U.S. Probation office, and Judge Kanne’s chambers. The rationale for the proposed closing is, in large part, the rental cost the courts must pay to the General Services Office for the use of the building, e.g., one federal agency paying another. . . .
If closed, federal cases and bankruptcies would need to be filed and handled in Hammond or possibly South Bend. This would be devastating not only to lawyers in Tippecanoe and surrounding counties, but also to the public at large. The necessity of travel to Hammond or South Bend would cause a significant loss of business for the local attorneys and greatly increased costs for our clients.
The federal courthouse in Lafayette is the Northern District of Indiana Hammond Division at Lafayette.
This is a Bad Idea. Geographically, Lafayette fills an important gap in the territory of the Northern District. Currently, the Lafayette “division” serves Benton, Carroll, Jasper, Newton, Tippecanoe, Warren, and White Counties. Those places are a long, long way from Hammond and South Bend.
If this strikes you as a bad idea, you might try contacting Senators Lugar and Bayh as well as Representatives Chocola, Buyer, Hostettler, and Visclosky.
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