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Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Ind. Courts - Marion County requests 8 more judges
The Indianapolis Star reports today, in a story by Kevin Corcoran, that beins:
Marion County residents who go to court have a less than 50 percent chance of a trial judge hearing their case.Appointed officials preside over felony trials, hear traffic cases and decide paternity, as residents' state taxes are used to pay elected judges in far-flung areas of Indiana.
Marion County judicial leaders went to the Statehouse on Monday to ask for more judges as part of an effort to increase the odds of appearing before a judge in the courtroom.Cale Bradford, presiding judge of the Marion Superior Court, asked Indiana's Commission on Courts to recommend beefing up the court system that serves as the state's judicial workhorse. Local officials want funding for four judges and four magistrates over the next three years, he said.
The Marion Circuit and Superior courts received 15.6 percent of the 1.25 million cases filed in Indiana last year -- almost as much as Allen, St. Joseph and Lake counties combined -- and raised 14.4 percent of the $64 million in court fees collected statewide.
But Marion County's courts have just 10 percent of the state's judges and magistrates, even though the county generates at least $2.5 million more in legal fees annually than the state returns in judicial pay and benefits. * * *
State taxes pay for only 43, or about 60 percent, of Marion County's court officers, compared with about 80 percent in Lake County and all of the court officers in Allen and St. Joseph counties. Marion County has not received additional court officers from the state since the mid-1990s.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 4, 2005 08:16 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts