The current state of the Judicial Branch is disappointing, with currently only one District Justice handling all District Court cases. While there are a few individuals who are currently training for this position, no one has been nominated for DCJ yet and the process of obtaining judgeship is quite sluggish.
I’ve been pondering on the introduction of the ‘Magistrate Court’ to this specific branch. You may been wondering what this is, basically, they’re similar to District Justices except they have less power/limited power. In real life, they act as assistants to District Justices but can also preside over cases involving summary offenses, which are very minor offenses, traffic infractions, and a generally small amount of misdemeanors. They’re also appointed through the Courts, not actually through a confirmation like a District Justice would need. With this all in mind, I believe implementing this will be great for aspiring judges and should replace the current training method which is conducting a mock trial where the JIT will preside over.
If any congress member is interested in aiding me in the drafting of a bill to establish this, please DM me (SerZhukov#5298).
This was typed up pretty fast so if you notice any mistakes regarding my information, correct me if you’d like.
I would only support a magistrate court in the event that it only had power to hear expungements and was not a primary position. Anything more should be handled by a proper judge.
Forgot to add that in my thread description, but yes, I do see having them bestowed the power of presiding over cases involving minor offenses could still be problematic.
Normally, it would be inappropriate for a judge to comment on a political matter. However, given this directly affects the execution of my duties, I’m going to comment anyway.
We don’t need another court solely dedicated to expungements. We need more active District Court Justices (and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court to help as well).
Hopefully, our newfound Governor will review my previous discussions on a Government Sponsored Law Institution as well as the Judge Mentorship Program, as this will provide the courts and legal side of the state the appropriate tools to manage the increase in cases.