Bill would add one judge in K.C., cut six in St. Louis

Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press, May 7, 2008 by Kelly Wiese

Legislation moving toward House debate would slash six judges from the St. Louis Circuit Court, while adding new judges to courts in the St. Louis County, Kansas City and Springfield areas.

The chances of passage remain uncertain, as the Legislature concludes its work for the year on May 16. But the House Judiciary Committee chairman has added the language to two bills and believes it should at least pass the House.

Rep. Bryan Stevenson, R-Webb City and a lawyer, said state resources must be allocated efficiently, and some courts desperately need more judges. He pointed to a special legislative committee report along with a state report conducted by the National Center of State Courts that found St. Louis has more judges than it needs.

The report from the National Center of State Courts studied all Missouri courts and determined several need more judges and commissioners, while others are overstaffed. For example, it found the St. Louis court had four more judges than necessary given its workload. The study labeled St. Louis County in most need, followed by Greene and Jackson counties.

Under Stevenson's amendments to two Senate bills, St. Louis city would lose six of its 31 circuit and associate judges, while St. Louis and Greene counties each would gain two associate circuit judges. Jackson County would pick up one associate judge, who would sit in Independence.

The bill also calls for one of two judges to be cut in the 43rd Circuit, encompassing Clinton, Caldwell, Daviess, Livingston, and DeKalb counties in northwestern Missouri. Associate judges would be added in the 39th (Lawrence, Barry and Stone counties) and 40th (Newton and McDonald counties) circuits.

Stevenson said the studies and other judges have indicated St. Louis has more than it needs and must make better use of its time and staff. He said judges from elsewhere in Missouri have complained to him that they get assigned to handle cases in St. Louis and arrive to find the workday starts late, ends early and includes a long lunch.

"They think it's ridiculous that they're getting transferred halfway across the state to fill in and work half a day," he said. "The judges are telling me there's a reason we have the criminal backlog in St. Louis city. They have to change the way they do business."

But the St. Louis Circuit Court previously has taken issue with the national group's study, with judges saying the averages used don't translate well in the city court. A key concern is that the city circuit handles far more jury trials, both civil and criminal, than other courts around Missouri, and every case that reaches trial delays others waiting in line.

"We don't feel we are overstaffed," Presiding Judge Thomas Grady said last fall after the study was released. "But, on the other hand, we are certainly willing to be as flexible [as], if not more flexible than, some other jurisdictions in the state of Missouri who have judges with considerably less workload than we have."

Grady did not return a call seeking comment by press time Tuesday.

Stevenson said another reason the St. Louis court can absorb a reduction is civil case filings have dropped notably there since the Legislature passed laws limiting injury lawsuits in 2005, while the number of judge positions in the circuit has held steady.

In fiscal 2005, which ended June 30, 2005, the St. Louis circuit had 53,179 cases filed, including 7,095 civil cases, according to state court data. In fiscal 2007, after the law changed limiting where people can file suit and how much they can collect if they win, total filings dropped to 50,500, including a reduction in civil cases to 4,305, a nearly 40 percent drop.

He said that while St. Louis might feel it's in the hot seat this year, the legislation is just the start of a broader effort to move judges to where they're most needed, and other counties could be in for change down the line.

"The opponents of change keep saying we need more time to study it. We're trying to study any change to death," Stevenson said. "We have multiple very credible studies and we're simply trying to implement a small part of them. We look to do a lot of changing, a lot of re-allocating, a lot of circuit redrawing."

Stevenson also said he plans to amend his language on the House floor so the judgeships will only be eliminated once a judge steps down from the bench, not automatically when their terms next expire, as several will at the end of the year.