Plan has district judges do more

Already, 4 work duties in circuit

Circuit Judge Vann Smith aims to expand an effort to reduce lengthy wait times for trial dates in Pulaski County Circuit Court, where people often wait up to a year before going to trial before a judge or jury.

Roughly six months ago the four district judges in Pulaski County began rotating into circuit court to hear child support cases. The 6th Judicial Circuit, which comprises Pulaski and Perry counties, supplies a courtroom twice a week where a state district judge holds a morning or afternoon session.

"It's just so that we can get them in quicker, and our dockets will be available to hear cases quicker," Smith said. "The idea is that it speeds up the whole process for litigants."

But the degree to which the change has lightened the circuit court caseload -- and thus reduced wait times -- has been imperceptible so far, Smith said.

So he plans to double down on it beginning next year by increasing the number of state district judges -- whose jurisdiction is typically limited to misdemeanors, minor felonies and violations of local ordinances -- manning a circuit court bench.

Act 1219, a law passed by the state Legislature in 2011, will reorganize Pulaski County's four local district courts into state district courts effective Jan. 1. The change will double the number of state district judges in the county to eight.

Smith wants the number of district judges participating in the circuit court rotation to double accordingly.

"For judicial efficiency, it will have those cases resolved quicker, and we'll clear up more time for us to hear cases, too," Smith said.

Under the plan, state district judges also will begin assisting with domestic abuse petitions, child support enforcement cases and unlawful detainer cases.

According to data obtained from the Arkansas Office of Research and Judicial Statistics, single-day trials within any given division of the circuit court often must be scheduled four to eight months ahead of time. Multiday trials can take a year to appear on a docket.

How rotating in district judges will affect a court's day-to-day docket and the extent to which wait times will be reduced is difficult to know, court officials said.

"Dockets are horribly difficult to predict,"state District Judge Randall Morley said. "You could have petitioners come in and ask to dismiss, and those could go very quickly. Or you could have one where people show up with private counsel, and hearings go on and on. It's difficult to predict those dockets and how they're going to go."

Local district judges in the rural parts of the county, who traditionally keep part-time dockets and practice law on the side, will shift to full-time duties as state district judges after Act 1219 takes effect.

Sherwood District Judge Milas Hale III, for instance, will be forgoing his family law practice to focus on his judgeship duties.

For Little Rock District Judge Alice Lightle, whose urban district and heavy caseload already require her full-time attention, the rotation will have her handling new types of cases, such as child support cases.

"It will be something that I don't do on a regular basis over here, but I don't anticipate that it will be a big learning curve," Lightle said.

Metro on 06/29/2016

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