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Departing Chief Justice Joseph Lambert will be appointed to oversee a work program for retired judges, court officials said Monday.
Lambert retires June 27, and his successor, Justice John D. Minton, will appoint Lambert to be chief judge of the senior status judge program, Administrative Office of the Courts director Jason Nemes said.
The senior judge program was created in 2000 to clear case backlogs. Retired judges work part-time for five years in exchange for a significant increase in retirement pay.
The chief senior judge position has been vacant since May 16, when Judge William Wehr completed his five years of service.
Like Wehr, Lambert will have access to an AOC employee to help him with his administrative duties, Nemes said. Lambert will work with chief regional judges to coordinate scheduling of senior judges.
Lambert will also get an office if space is available. He is likely to keep his current office at the Rockcastle County court house, Nemes said.
Nemes said that all senior judges are allowed to have state offices if space is available in properties the court system is already renting.
“He is not being treated any different,” Nemes said.
Lambert will work with nearly 40 senior judges. That number is expected to rise into the 50s as judges rush to retire before the program sunsets on Jan. 31, 2009. No judges will be allowed to join the program after that date since legislators declined to extend the program this spring.
But the program will continue as senior judges serve out their five-year commitments.
Robert McGinnis, the chief regional judge in Northern Kentucky, said Lambert’s administrative experience and familiarity with the senior judges make him well qualified for the position.
“The chief has been working with all of them since (the program’s) inception,” McGinnis said. “There has been a huge amount of turnover the past few years. He probably knows them better than any of the judges” in the program.
Reach Brandon Ortiz at (859) 231-1443, 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 1443.
