Next year's plans for dividing the caseloads of circuit judges were approved by the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday for all but one of the state's judicial circuits.
The 6th Judicial Circuit, in Pulaski and Perry counties, was the only one left seeking approval.
The Supreme Court issued a single-page order approving administrative plans from the other 27 judicial circuits. The justices also approved plans from all the state's district courts.
Absent from the list was the 6th Circuit, though three justices -- Josephine Hart, Karen Baker and Robin Wynne -- signed a one-sentence concurring opinion indicating they would have approved all of the plans.
The order doesn't say why the rest of the justices chose not to approve the 6th Circuit's plan.
Chief Justice Dan Kemp said in a text message to a reporter Thursday that the court's review of the 6th Circuit's plan is still a pending matter. He declined to comment further.
The administrative judge for the 6th Circuit, Vann Smith, said he had not heard from the high court.
"Basically it's the same plan" as in recent years, Smith said. "I don't know why they're upset."
Every year, each of the state's judicial circuits must submit plans to the Supreme Court explaining how they plan to divide the next year's caseload. Smith said he's been coming up with the 6th Circuit's plans since about 2004.
In order to be submitted to the Supreme Court, at least nine of the 6th Circuit's 17 judges must sign on to the plan. This year, 14 judges gave their approval, according to the letter Smith sent to Kemp when the circuit judge submitted the plan in June.
In 2016, there were 21,564 cases filed in Pulaski County, according to the case plan. Because juvenile cases are handled in a separate building, the three judges handling those cases got a reduced caseload, as has been done in years past. The average caseload for each of the remaining judges was 1,426 cases, according to the plan.
The docket from Perry County, which had only 389 cases in 2016, will be split among all 17 judges, according to the plan.
Two judges, Herb Wright and Mackie Pierce, voiced their objections in a letter to Smith. They argued that the caseloads were unfair because the three judges handling juvenile cases received less than half the cases of other judges. They argued to split juvenile cases between two judges, and have the third judge take up a docket of family and probate cases.
The 6th Circuit's plan also abides by the Supreme Court's decision in April to strip Judge Wendell Griffen of all cases involving the death penalty or executions, after he participated in an anti-death penalty protest that month.
In his own letter to Smith, Griffen said that while he was OK with his caseload, he continued to feel that he was being punished without a fair hearing. Three other judges added their signatures to a statement saying their approval of the plan did not mean they approved of the Supreme Court's punishment.
The plan is supposed to go into effect Jan. 1.
Metro on 11/17/2017