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Saturday, April 02, 2011

Ind. Courts - "What happens when cases get bogged down in court? ‘Lazy judge motions’ have been filed 11 times in Monroe since 2000"

Another great story today ($$) from Laura Lane of the Bloomington Herald-Times. A quote from the long story:

Complaints about judges taking too long to make decisions most often are resolved between the lawyers and the judge. But not always.

For instance, Monroe Circuit Court Judge Valeri Haughton, who took the bench in 2009, accumulated three of the county’s total of 11 such complaints filed since 2000, one her first year in office and two in 2010. All were divorce cases.

Monroe Circuit Judge Kenneth Todd, who oversees criminal cases, had one filed against him in February in a case involving a fatal boat crash on Lake Monroe. He had a previous complaint in 2001.

* * * And former Monroe Circuit Judge David Welch, who did not seek re-election in 2008, had five since 2000.

The “notice of withdrawal of submission” petitions document how a judge has not met deadlines under Indiana trial court rules.

And when a judge does not meet them, what are commonly called “lazy judge motions” can compel the Indiana Supreme Court to assign the case to another judge. * * *

Indiana State Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathryn Dolan said there are about 400 courts in the state and “lazy judge motions” are not often filed. There were just 20 filed statewide in 2008 and 32 in 2009; 2010 statistics have not yet been compiled.

Interestingly, a look back in the ILB archives uncovered this Oct. 7, 2008 entry, quoting another Laura Lane story. At that time:
Attorneys Valeri Haughton, a Democrat, and Republican Joby Jerrells are seeking the Circuit Court 6 seat being vacated by Judge David Welch, a Democrat who is not seeking re-election.
Both Haughton and her precedessor, Welch, are mentioned in today's story. (Welch is the husband of state representative Peggy Welch.) Jerrells was recently a finalist for the Tax Court.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 2, 2011 01:35 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts