Palmer likely to get night, weekend court

JOHN DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER -- On Sept. 29, Palmer District Court surpassed the total criminal caseload for 2003. As of Dec. 10, the courthouse had handled 800 more criminal cases than last year and more than 2,000 more traffic offenses than last year, according to court records.

A steadily increasing caseload has started to overwhelm Palmer District Court, and plans to expand the schedule with a night and weekend court are nearing completion.

Expanded hours for night and weekend court are tentatively set to begin early in January, District Court Administrator Wendy Lyford said Friday; she is just waiting for final approval from Administrative Director Stephanie Cole, who said a decision will be made within the next week.

Earlier this year, a new district court judgeship was created to alleviate an ever-increasing caseload in the Palmer District Court. Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed John W. Wolfe, a former state prosecutor, to the new post in November; he is set to begin Jan. 3.

But with six judges and only five courtrooms, court administrators are opting to open a night and weekend court as a temporary solution.

Wolfe will join district court judges William Estelle and Gregory Heath, along with Magistrate David Zwink, in a new night and weekend rotation next month, Lyford said.

The proposed schedule will add an evening shift Wednesday through Friday from 2 to 10 p.m., as well as a full day Saturday and all or part of Sunday. The three district court judges and Zwink will rotate, with one working nights and weekends and the other three working a normal daytime schedule, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

"It's very unusual for a court this size to have expanded hours," Cole said. "Right now we're just trying to make sure we haven't missed anything in terms of security, building and personnel issues."

Although courts throughout the state currently hold arraignment hearings on weekends, the new schedule in Palmer will be an expansion beyond this. Court business on nights and weekends will include small claims, marriage dissolution hearings, traffic claims and domestic-violence restraining orders.

Traffic violations constitute the biggest increase in caseload, Shaw said. For the calendar year 2003, there were 10,629 minor traffic offenses; so far in 2004, there are 12,336.

But the new schedule will not affect the Palmer district attorney's office, Lyford said. Since no new positions have been created for that office, only those hearings that do not involve state prosecutors will be moved to nights and weekends.

The new schedule is modeled on the Anchorage court system, which instituted a night traffic court 10 years ago. Lyford said it has worked well, in part because people don't have to take time off work to come in for traffic hearings. Anchorage courts are the only model administrators have to work with, but a night and weekend schedule has been successful there.

"There are so many unknowns with this, it could be that we're throwing a party no one will come to," Lyford said. "We'll watch closely in the next year to see what the public's reaction is. We're going into this open minded."

So far, the reaction from law enforcement has been positive, she said. One advantage of holding traffic hearings at night is that it enables many night-shift officers to attend without having to come in during their off hours.

But the new schedule is only the beginning. More drastic changes are in the works, Lyford said, including a proposal to expand the courthouse building in 2006. A fifth courtroom was added in 2000 but caseloads have increased so quickly that additional room is needed.

For now, night and weekend court is the most practical solution to ever-increasing caseloads, administrators say. Further expansion of courthouse facilities in Palmer is more than a year away, Cole said, and financing will have to be approved by the Legislature.

"I think we'll need another judge out there in the next couple of years," Lyford said. "I've submitted requests in my [FY 2006] budget proposal for two more courtrooms and related expansion in clerks' offices and judicial chambers. One more court will accommodate the additional judge we have now; another courtroom will accommodate further expansion."

Contact John Davidson at john.davidson@frontiersman.com.