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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Ind. Courts - "Clarksville may scrap its town court"; ILB observation

Following up on this Dec. 22, 2010 ILB entry, Ben Zion Hershberg reports in today's Louisville Courier Journal:

The Clarksville Town Council has scheduled special meetings on Monday and Tuesday to consider—and possibly vote on—eliminating the Town Court.

“It has to be done this year,” said Greg Isgrigg, president of the council. “If not, it will stay another four years.”

That’s because a new judge is to be chosen in next year’s municipal elections. Once that happens, Isgrigg said, the court would have to keep operating through the judge’s four-year term.

If the court is eliminated, its cases would be handled in county courts.

Council member Bob Popp said he’s bothered that the move to save money is coming up so suddenly and with little time to consider it.

“We’ve never had a meeting or a work session” on it, said Popp. He said he believes the potential savings – he recalled Isgrigg estimating about $124,000 -- could be made in other ways.

The town court annually handles about 1,600 misdemeanor and traffic cases that would take much longer to work their way through county courts where caseloads are much larger, Popp said.

A report last year by the Indiana Judicial Conference on long-term plans for the court system recommended eliminating municipal courts, appointing rather than electing circuit and superior judges, and using state funds to support the courts uniformly rather than relying on widely varying county revenue.

The Town of Sellersburg and the City of Charlestown voted this year to eliminate their municipal courts at the end of next year. The Jeffersonville City Council considered eliminating its court but decided to keep it.

“We decided it was serving a valuable purpose and didn’t see the need to eliminate the court,” said Jeffersonville City Council President Nathan Samuel.

While the Jeffersonville court isn’t fully self-supporting, Samuel said, it covers a significant share of its expenses from citation revenue and other fees. It also contributes to maintaining the courtroom that also serves as the City Council meeting room and operates important educational and other outreach programs, he said.

ILB observation: This story, plus the earlier story today about the canceled plans for a Fort Wayne city court, helps fill out the picture of the financial pros and cons of city and town courts.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 23, 2010 04:25 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts