Judges face learning curve in 31st Judicial Circuit, await new position to ease workload

By September, nine out of 12 judges in the 31st Judicial Circuit in Greene County will have served on their bench for less than a year. Only two had previous judicial experience.

The unprecedented turnover of judges last year brought fear and uncertainty to the Greene County legal community. All six of the circuit judges, most of who had served on the bench since early 2000s, announced their departure last year. Three had reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, while other three chose to retire early or went to pursue other opportunities.

Circuit judges deal with civil cases with any cause of action over $25,000 and criminal felony cases transferred from other courts. Associate circuit judges have jurisdiction over civil cases with any cause of action under $25,000, small claims, traffic tickets, criminal misdemeanors and felonies up to the probable cause stage.

In addition to the circuit judges who retired, three associate circuit judge positions were also vacant after two associate circuit judges moved up to Circuit Court.

Crista Hogan, the executive director of Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association, said the turnover left a lot of uncertainty for lawyers because of the nature of the law profession.

"With cases, you don't usually know the outcome," she said. "If you don't even know the players, there's a lot of discomfort."

While the introduction of the new faces has surprised lawyers and gone relatively smoothly, the job is not yet done.

How are circuit judges selected?

Currently, there are two vacancies left to fill — a circuit judge and an associate circuit judge.

Since 2008, when Greene County voted to adopt the Non-partisan Court Plan, judges at the circuit courts are selected by a five-person commission of lawyers, lay people appointed by the governor and the Chief Judge of Missouri Court of Appeals Southern District. This replaced the previous practice of electing judges. The commission reviews applications, conducts interviews and selects a panel of three candidates to present to the governor.

The recommendations of three-candidate panels for each position were announced Friday. Derek Ankrom, Kevin Rapp and Jared Robertson were selected for the circuit judge panel. For the associate circuit judge position, the commission selected Steven Kellogg, Nathan Taylor and Amy Westermann. Now, Gov. Mike Parson has 60 days to select the judges from the panels, though Hogan said she expects the announcement of selections to come within the next 6 weeks.

After appointment, the newly selected judges get time to wrap up their current practice. Usually, this takes about 30 days.

After the final judges are appointed, this will be the first bench entirely appointed through the Non-partisan Court Plan as the last elected judge retired last year.

Hogan said in the past, since the introduction of the Non-partisan Court Plan, eight judges had been appointed through this method. In the past year alone, the current commission has already picked eight judges and still is in the process of picking the final two.

Transition exceeded expectations

Last year, the legal community in Greene County was bracing for what was to come — an unprecedented turnover of judges. With the transition period nearing its end, Jason Smith, a lawyer at Spencer Fane, said the process has been much smoother than expected.

Smith, who has practiced law in Greene County since 2005, said he has never seen anything close to the changes the circuit court bench has experienced this past year. While not flawless, he said the process has been relatively seamless without much disruption to his work. A portion of this Smith credits to the preparation of county clerks for the retirements.

"I'm also going to attribute that to just the quality of new judges that have been appointed," he said. "You know, we've had some really tremendous people appointed to the bench...people who were truly able to hit the ground running."

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The few issues that arose from the switch Smith said have been the lack of familiarity for the judges when a case has been in the process for a while and a new judge is appointed midway through. Some scheduling conflicts for cases that already had been put on the former judges' calendars had also created some minor delays in the process.

Presiding Judge Jerry Harmison said Judge John Bloodworth, a visiting judge from Poplar Bluff, has taken on associate circuit cases since September to help the process move along as well.

Harmison was appointed as an associate circuit judge in 2017 until moving up to circuit judge in September and becoming the presiding judge in March.

"Any time a person makes a change, even in the same industry, there's a learning curve," he said. "There's a lot to learn and for a period of time you feel like you're drinking out of a firehose."

Yet, the work ethic, attitude and dedication of the newly appointed judges, Harmison said, has made the learning curve an easier obstacle to cross.

"When the dust settles, this circuit will be every bit as strong as it used to be if not better," he said.

A more diverse bench

As new judges have joined both the circuit and associate circuit benches, they have become more diverse than the former round of judges. Hogan said there is a bigger range in ages with the youngest judge being 39 years old and the oldest 60. The number of women has also doubled, from two to four within the total 12 judges.

Being the branch of government that citizens come in contact with the most, Hogan said the judicial branch becomes a representation of government at large. This diversity adds to the benches ability to relate to and care for the people it serves.

"This is a place where it's not just a matter of how the people are going to perceive justice and the legal system, but it's representative of all of government and it's functioning," she said. "So, I think it's really important that we do it well."

Harmison said this diversity also adds to the different perspectives that each judge brings to the system during discussions. When it comes to the age range, he said it is also a way to prevent another such retirement-led turnover in the future.

While the former judges had the experience, the fact that all the judges are relatively new to their position is also an added asset for the cohesion of the team.

"When we're all sort of new at the same time, and we're learning together, we're also developing practices and procedures and policies together," Harmison said. "When you do something together, you have buy in."

More work left to do

In addition to filling the six vacancies from last year, an extra circuit judge position will be added after Parson signed the state budget on June 30 that included funding for the seventh position. Hogan said the application process has not yet opened for this position.

With the onboarding of the new judges, she said the seventh position will be useful in helping juggle the transitions. Due to the high volume of cases the court hears, the additional judge will be a way to continue to improve efficiency and equalize workload.

Smith agreed that Greene County has been in need of more judges in order to run more efficiently, citing that in comparison, circuit courts in other counties tend to carry out cases faster.

"We've always had more demand and more going on and not enough judges to handle everything," he said. "So what I would say is, the more judges for Greene County, the better."

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When cases get slowed down, Harmison said it does a disservice to the parties, witnesses and victims alike.

"[The new judge] will help us move cases forward," he said. "And that is important to ensure the citizens get their needs met."

Harmison said the new judge would likely start around Christmas at the earliest, giving the new set of six circuit judges time to examine where the greatest need for the additional judge to help out lays.

Currently, the space for the additional judge will be tight.

The newest associate circuit judge would initially be housed in the smaller courtroom, usually designated for visiting judges, in order for the additional circuit court judge to have a courtroom. However, Harmison said that would be temporary while the old jail is renovated. He said portions of the old jail will be renovated to create space for family law to move into. Moving family law there will open up more spaces for judges at the current courthouse. The renovations are expected to be completed within two years.

While the filling of this new position would mean that the process of searching for judges can end, Hogan said the process will likely not stop there.

She said the Missouri Supreme Court currently has a vacancy and will have another by the end of the year. If one of those were to be filled from someone from the 31st Circuit, it would create a ripple effect of vacancies at the circuit level, leaving the current commission to consider more candidates for the positions.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Year after turnover: new judges face learning curve, diversify circuit