Palmer will get a fifth superior court judge under bill sponsored by governor

A bill to add a fifth state superior court judge in Palmer is moving through the Legislature.

An additional judge is needed because the Palmer superior court is now the busiest in the state and its judges have the highest caseloads of any superior court. “The four current Palmer judges and are handling a workload that is unsustainable: they are assigned an average of 683 cases per judge, compared to the statewide average of 458 cases per superior court judge,” Nancy Meade, General Counsel for the Alaska court system, told the House and Senate finance committees in hearings on the bill, which is House Bill 262 now in the Rules Committee state House and Senate Bill 212, now in the Senate Finance Committee.

Both bills are well advanced in the Legislature and will likely pass. Gov. Mike Dunleavy sponsored the legislation.

“The new judge will handle a mix of civil and criminal cases to better serve the justice needs of Alaskans in the busiest court in the state,” Meade said.

Adding a fifth judge to the Palmer Superior Court will mean that those judges would have 546 cases each. This would still exceed the statewide average number of cases per judge, and Palmer judges would still have the highest caseload per judge of any court in the state, but it would be a welcome and needed improvement,” she said.

The last time the Legislature changed the law to add a new superior court judge in Palmer was 20 years ago. The population of the Mat-Su Borough increased by approximately 40 percent since 2006 when the last judge was added.

“With such a marked increase in population comes, of course, a marked increase in all the government services that those citizens require, including from the courts and judges,” Meade said.

The number of cases filed in the Palmer superior court has increased by 55 percent since 2007, when the fourth and newest judge took his seat. The case filings in Palmer increased from 1,746 that year to 2,732 cases in 2005. The growth has been handled by the same four superior court judge positions with judges visiting at times from other courts in the state.

“For many years, this growing burden was mitigated with the increased use of technology and other efficiencies, but continuing with the same number of judges we have had in Palmer for 20 years while the population increased 40 percent and case filings increased by 55 percent has become untenable,” Meade told the finance committee members.

The Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice and the court system’s Administrative Director carefully study caseload trends, filing patterns, and judicial coverage in the state. Along with the entire Supreme Court, they determine the needs of the Judiciary and how best to provide justice, and they carefully consider when and where judicial positions should be changed.

After much discussion, the Court has concluded that adding this superior court judge in Palmer is necessary, and this legislation is the most effective and fiscally responsible way to continue to provide equal justice, Meade said.