As we enter the final push this Legislative Session I remind our members to reach out to your local legislators to request (1) they approve our budget including the additional judge positions; (2) include the judicial branch in the cost of living adjustment for all State employees; and (3) approve the bill to eliminate fee funding of the judicial branch.
The weighted case load study completed in 2020 recommended adding 49.4 additional judge positions across the state. Currently, the budget requests 23 additional judge positions and converting three magistrate judges to district court judge positions through attrition as the judges in that district retire (your job is not at risk). See the chart below which explains which districts had a surplus of judges and which districts needed additional judges according to this survey.
The suggestion to revisit or review the one county/one judge statute will most certainly continue to be made every year. This chart, arguably, supports the theory that moving judges around would effectively cut the need for new judges in half. This cannot be done with the current statute in place.
KDMJA supports the one county/one judge statute and opposes any changes. What this chart fails to take into consideration is the actual impact on our citizens if that statute were to be changed. It does not take into consideration access to justice, the lack of consistent/reliable internet in our frontier regions, and the lack of public transportation in our rural and frontier counties. Citizens expect to walk into their courthouse and be able to find a judge to help them. If that statute changes, so does that easy and immediate access.
As you speak with your legislators, please remind them that the salary adjustment approved last legislative session to bring our staff up to market pay relied on a study completed in 2020. That analysis did not consider cost of living increases in its recommendations. It took a snapshot of market pay for similar positions in 2020. To exclude the employees and judges of the judicial branch from this state wide COLA means falling behind our neighboring states once again.
In regards to the change in fee funding, some legislators voiced concerns that the judicial branch closed during covid and removing fee funding from our budget removes an incentive for our courts to stay open. It is important to stress - we did not close during Covid. Our courthouses may not have been open, we may have been sheltering in place, but we continued to hold court throughout Covid. Just like the executive branch and the legislative branch, we found ways to continue to provide access to justice throughout the pandemic and the courts did not close.
Thank you for taking the time to reach out to your legislators. A phone call or email from a constituent who shares their own stories from the legislator's district mean so much and can be so persuasive at the end of the day.
Me attending the ABA - BLI (Board Leadership Institute) in Chicago last week.
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