Flathead gets new judge spot

Flathead County will get a fourth District Court judge after a bill became law over the weekend.

Senate Bill 158, sponsored by Sen. Greg Barkus, R-Kalispell, was enacted without a signature from Gov. Brian Schweitzer because the House and Senate overrode his amendments to the bill by wide margins.

The legislation provides for a fourth district judge in each of Flathead and Lewis and Clark counties, as well as a sixth judge in Yellowstone County.

The new judges will be elected in November 2010 and take office in January 2011.

The cost of the judges and their staffs will be about $1.9 million over two years.

There has been a push for a deeper judicial bench in Flathead County since 2006, when the National Center for State Courts conducted a statewide assessment and found the county needed a minimum of two additional district judges to keep up with caseloads at that time.

"I think there was recognition statewide, even with the financial circumstances the Legislature was dealing with, they nevertheless found it critical to provide three judges," Flathead County District Court Judge Katherine R. Curtis said. "And the Legislature did so in overwhelming fashion."

Curtis testified in support of the legislation at least three times during the legislative session.

The needs assessment, she said, found that Montana needed 13 additional judges across the state, based on 2006 caseload statistics. But the methodology for the assessment was applied in 2007 as well, finding the state was 16 judges short because of increasing caseloads.

The assessment accounts for the manner in which some cases are more time-consuming than others and some court districts carry disproportionately more of the most time-consuming cases.

Child abuse and neglect cases, for instance, are the highest-weighted cases, partly because they can involve numerous people and there are state and federal time requirements for resolving them.

Flathead County had 179 of those cases in 2006, more than any other county in the state.

That played a part in Flathead County being considered a priority district in Barkus' bill, which originally proposed hiring six new judges statewide. Shrinking revenue forecasts compelled the Legislature to scale it back.

One judge falls short of addressing the caseload issue in Flathead County, but it is expected to make a difference.

"It's not going to solve our problem, but it's going to help a lot," said Peg Allison, the county's clerk of court.

"It will enable all [four district judges' to be more timely in our decision-making process and in scheduling hearings and trials," Curtis said. "Now someone who might have to wait six to nine months on a motion for summary judgment, they should be able to get that in a much shorter time frame."

Civil cases that don't have statutory priority, in particular, should be expedited, Curtis said.

The state funding will cover salaries for the new judge plus two immediate support staffers and an additional person working under Allison. Only minor remodeling will be required at the county Justice Center, converting existing office space into a judge's chambers and a conference room into a small courtroom where small, non-jury trials can be held.

The four judges will rotate use of the smaller courtroom, depending on the type of cases they are handling, Allison said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com