Kentucky Supreme Court asks for judicial district reshuffling, more family court judges
.jpg "If passed as suggested, the order would add eight circuit court judges and eliminate eight district court divisions.")
Aside from the looming task of legislative redistricting, the Republican-dominated state legislature could have one more electoral map to consider at the upcoming 2022 General Assembly: the state court system. Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton has asked for several changes to the makeup of both circuit and district courts in the Commonwealth.
In an order from last week, Minton issued a “certification of necessity for the creation and elimination” as well as rearrangement of judicial districts. The order applies to fewer than 20 district and circuit courts.
If passed as suggested, it would add eight circuit court judges and eliminate eight district court divisions.
The apportionments are to be decided by the state legislature, whose Republican caucuses hold veto-proof supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature.
Minton’s chief of staff Katie Shepherd said that previous efforts to add judges in certain circuit courts without also eliminating some judgeships were not well received by the state legislature.
Statewide judicial redistricting, Shepherd said, is ultimately needed but has not taken place since 1893 – 128 years ago.
Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, filed a statewide plan that passed the senate in 2017 but never got a hearing in the house. Shepherd emphasized that the current proposal from Minton is a statewide plan.
Unlike redistricting that will have to take place for state and national legislative districts in Kentucky, judicial redistricting has “very little to do” with population and everything to do with each court’s caseload.
And since being given the green light in 2014 by the legislature to perform a judicial workload assessment, with the latest batch of results coming from 2017-2019, Minton’s office suggested several circuit courts in need of an extra judge and other district courts who could use one fewer.
“(The order) takes into account a time study that the judges have completed, where basically for a month they went through and they recorded their time for every single thing that they do,” Shepherd said. “At the end of that, you end up with the exact amount of time it takes to do particular case types.”
Some judges – she mentioned the family court in Knox and Laurel counties presided over by Stephen M. Jones – do more than twice the workload of the average judge. Jones, in particular, has the work of two and one quarter judges.
Others, like Floyd District Court, have less than half the workload of the average circuit judge.
In general, Shepherd said, circuit judges had higher workloads than district judges. Family court is a great need, she said, with Minton’s proposal adding five family court divisions and eliminating none.
None of the district courts on the chopping block have seen all incumbents file for reelection. Shepherd said that retirements could be a factor in deciding which districts lose a judge, and that the courts don’t dictate when changes need to happen – so, an elimination of a division could take place several years after the legislature might pass the court’s recommendations.
Shepherd said that 2018 was the last time that the makeup of some circuit and district court divisions changed, though only three were added and three removed.
In the current proposal, eight circuit court judges would be added with five being family court justices. Eight district judgeships would be eliminated.
Spokespeople for both State Senate President Robert Stivers and Speaker of the House David Osborne did not offer comment on Minton’s order.
Below are Minton’s proposed additions, eliminations and realignments:
Proposed circuit judge additions:
27th Circuit: Knox and Laurel (family)
14th Circuit: Bourbon, Scott, and Woodford (family)
56th Circuit: Caldwell, Livingston, Lyon and Trigg
6th Circuit: Daviess (family)
16th Circuit: Kenton (family)
8th Circuit: Warren
25th Circuit: Clark and Madison
3rd Circuit: Christian (family)
Proposed district judge eliminations and rearrangements:
31st District: Floyd
41st District: Clay, Jackson and Leslie
Combine the 42nd District (Calloway District Court) with the 58th District (Marshall District Court) to create a newly constituted 42nd Judicial District
4th District: Hopkins
51st District: Henderson
Move Edmonson County from the 38th Judicial Circuit and District (Butler, Edmonson, Hancock and Ohio) to the 8th Judicial Circuit and District (Warren County)
Eliminate district court division in the newly constituted 38th Judicial District
Remove Clinton County from the 40th Judicial District (Clinton, Russell and Wayne) and renumber the remaining counties, Russell and Wayne, as the 57th Judicial District
Eliminate district court division in the newly constituted 57th Judicial District
Add Clinton County to the 60th Judicial District (Cumberland and Monroe), and renumber the newly combined counties (Clinton, Cumberland and Monroe) as the 40th Judicial District.
30th District: Jefferson
The current 57th Judicial District (Nelson County) shall be renumbered as the 58th Judicial District.
This story was originally published December 23, 2021 at 8:49 AM.
