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Thursday, November 10, 2011
Ind. Courts - Court task force to address problems with current judgment docket system
An Indiana Court Times article today by Jeffrey Wiese reports:
A high profile working group has been formed to review the laws and rules involving one of the most critical records in Indiana’s judicial system—the judgment docket. The judgment docket serves as notice to all interested parties that a judgment exists and is a lien on the real property of the defendant.What are the problems?
- The judgment docket contains not only information about court judgments, it also contains entries for “judgments” created by statute such as:
- failure of railroad company to repair or improve that portion of the street occupied by its track (see I.C. 8-6-12-2);
- removal of signs that are public nuisance (see I.C. 8-23-20-26); tax warrants (see I.C. 6-8.1-8-2); and
- liens for unsafe building repairs (see I.C. 36-7-9-13).
- failure of railroad company to repair or improve that portion of the street occupied by its track (see I.C. 8-6-12-2);
- The judgment docket is a tool meant to be usable by the public to locate judgments; however, the public has no way of knowing where a particular judgment is recorded. A recent survey of the Indiana Code found statutory authority for at least 198 judgment dockets. There is no cross referencing of these judgment dockets.
- There is no consistency from county to county or even court to court within the same county about how judgment dockets are kept. Some counties still keep actual judgment docket books; some keep this record electronically; some record unpaid court costs and fines, and some do not.
- Party Identification issues exist. There may be many James Smiths in a county. How can we ensure the judgment docket properly identifies the specific James Smith related to the judgment?
- Confidentiality issues exist. Some juvenile cases contain orders for restitution. According to statute, restitution orders should be recorded in the judgment docket; however, juvenile cases are confidential. How should this be handled?
Posted by Marcia Oddi on November 10, 2011 11:47 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts