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Friday, April 23, 2010
Ind. Courts - Chief Justice Shepard: Indiana court filings on the rise
So reports Maureen Hayden (the statehouse bureau chief for CNHI’s Indiana newspapers) in the April 22, 2010 New Albany News & Tribune. Some quotes:
INDIANAPOLIS — A new effort by Indiana’s top court to stem the number of mortgage foreclosures in Indiana reflects a larger trend in the state’s legal system: An explosion of civil and criminal cases brought on by the recession.A side-bar provides this information from "the 2008-09 Indiana Supreme Court Annual Report [revealing] changes in case filings over the last decade", including:The increase in foreclosures — up 50 percent in five years — triggered a new state law last year that gave homeowners facing foreclosure the right to a settlement conference with their lender to explore alternatives. But so few homeowners took advantage of the new law that the Indiana Supreme Court has had to step in, training more than 1,000 lawyers and judges in both the new law and the financial mechanics of foreclosure.
On Tuesday, the Indiana Supreme Court and the Indiana Foreclosure Prevention Network announced an expansion of that program throughout the state.
It’s not the only place where the top court has intervened in response to an overburdened court system. More than 2 million civil and criminal cases were filed in the Indiana courts in 2008, according to the most recent report on the state’s court system. The numbers for 2009, due soon, are expected to meet or exceed that record number of cases.
As Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard noted to lawmakers earlier this year: “It’s a tangible marker of a society under stress.”
The rising caseloads prompted Shepard to ask state lawmakers to let him bring senior magistrates out of retirement to help alleviate the caseload. Those retired magistrates — authorized to preside over some civil and criminal matters — will return to the benches in county courthouses around the state this summer. * * *
The numbers show up in the recently published annual report of the Indiana Supreme Court. In the three-volume report, available online at the court’s website, is a county-by-county accounting of the kinds of civil and criminal cases filed.
One potential piece of good news: murder cases, which reached a decade’s peak of 279 in 2002, are trending down, with 209 murder cases filed in Indiana courts in 2008.
- • Total criminal and civil cases filed: up 29 percent.
• Child in need of services (abused and neglected children): up 25 percent.
• Termination of parental rights: up 39 percent
• Civil collections: up 23 percent.
• Violation of city/town ordinances: up 13 percent
Okay, I now have located the latest (2008) 3-volume county-by-county report. Access it here.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 23, 2010 08:31 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts