Litigation

VA Belt-Tightening to Create Judge Shortage?

By Peter Hardin

Each week news articles from one state or another chronicle the impact of budget crises on the courts. On Sunday, a Virginia newspaper carried this front-page banner headline: “Virginia faces shortage of judges.”

A hiring freeze resulting from budget-cutting by Virginia’s General Assembly is expected to leave 18 judgeships unfilled in the current fiscal year and as many as 50 vacant by June 30, 2012, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. (The freeze was the topic of an earlier Gavel Grab post.)

Commented Judge Valentine W. Southall Jr., who may face the challenge of covering  five juvenile and domestic district courts at once, “I’ve never been in a position where it’s so clearly overwhelming.”

Unless certain localities get supplemental funding or other help,  some courts may “have to curtail operations or expand the caseload of existing judges, in some cases dramatically,” the article reported. You can learn more about the impact of court funding cuts from Gavel Grab.

Full post as published by The Gavel on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).