NEWS

Extra judge sought for Cascade County in 2017

Phil Drake
pdrake@greatfallstribune.com

Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike McGrath told Great Falls-area attorneys that more help may be on the way.

Speaking Thursday to the Cascade County Bar Association, McGrath said the 2017 Legislature will be asked to fund another judge in Great Falls 8th Judicial District Court to help with the growing workload.

McGrath, who is running unopposed for another eight-year term as chief justice, said Montana has 46 district court judges who are handling 53,000 cases.

“The workload in Cascade County is extremely high and judges have a heavy caseload,” he said.

McGrath said there has been a dramatic increase in criminal cases and cases involving child abuse and neglect.

He noted a recent study found that Montana could use another 22 judges.

“That’s not realistic,” he said.

He said the Legislature instead would be asked to fund another five judges, estimated to cost $1.5 million each once staff was included.

“It’s a big ask,” McGrath said.

He said two other judges would be sought for the 13th district, which is the Yellowstone County area and another one each in Missoula and Flathead.

District Court Judge Greg Pinski, who presides in Cascade County with three other judges, said the court has seen such a dramatic increase in case filings that it is getting to be “impossible” to keep up with the cases coming in.

He said the judges are presiding over 1,400 cases each, a 25 percent increase since 2009. Abuse and neglect case are up 70 percent from that same period.

And if someone were to file a civil suit in Pinski’s court today, it would be May 2018 until it was heard.

“That is just the reality of the cases we have pending,” he said. “It’s really having a detrimental effect on the judicial system.”

A panel considering judicial redistricting was told in February that court filings in Judicial District 8 in Cascade County increased about 35 percent in six years, from 4,123 in 2009 to 5,571 in 2015, and another two judges are needed to help with the caseload.

Court Administrator Beth McLaughlin told a state panel that child abuse and neglect cases are the single-most time-consuming cases and take an average of 200 minutes. The next highest are criminal cases, which take an average of 140 minutes.

In Cascade County, 166 child abuse and neglect cases were filed in 2010. In 2015, 386 cases were filed. In the 9th Judicial District, which has one judge and includes Glacier, Pondera, Teton and Toole counties, 18 such cases were filed in 2010 and 114 in 2015.

In 2015, the state Legislature approved House Bill 430, which created a Judicial Redistricting Committee to look at ways to ease the workload of courts.

In August the committee decided against recommending any of the six proposed changes to the existing judicial districts.

District Court Judge Gregory Todd of Billings, who served as committee chairman, said the panel decided that going beyond the scope of the committee and looking at other possible solutions was not an option.

The additional judges will be part of the judicial Branch’s House Bill 2 request, the state budget spending plan. The judicial branch includes the Supreme Court, state District Courts, Water Court and a few other administrative functions, McLaughlin said.

In terms of the Legislature approving the request, Pinski said he was optimistic.

He said Cascade County has not added a judge for 16 years “and this need exists in the major communities across the state.”

“The judicial branch is notoriously frugal,” he said. “They don’t spend a lot of money and they don’t ask for a lot of money.”