Assembly budget plans would fill more judgeships

Both the House and Senate money committees are more generous to the courts than Virginia’s governor in terms of allocating money for judgeships.

The House Appropriations and Senate Finance Committees last week recommended filling more vacant judgeships than the 15 proposed by Gov. Bob McDonnell, but the House and Senate differed on where the judges are most needed.

The House budget report would have the state pay for unfreezing 32 judgeships that are vacant or will become vacant during 2013. The Senate plan would unfreeze 26 judgeships.

Fairfax County would get two circuit court vacancies unfrozen under the Senate plan, but no new circuit judges under the House plan. On the other hand, the House budget report includes money for two circuit judgeships in Virginia Beach and Portsmouth, positions that would be unfilled under the Senate proposal.

The House report also would pay for two circuit court judgeships in the Roanoke Valley and Lynchburg, where the Senate plan would not.

The House panel proposes to fund general district judgeships in the 25th District, where a Waynesboro judge retired, and for Lynchburg. The Senate plan did not include money for those vacancies.

The sprawling 15th Circuit would get two new circuit judges and two new general district judges under the House plan, but only one each under the Senate proposal. The 15th Circuit includes Fredericksburg, Hanover County and the Northern Neck.

Both the House and Senate proposals would fund one general district judgeship in Fairfax County, where the bench and bar have pointed to urgent needs not reflected in the current caseload statistics.

Arlington County and Charlottesville appear to be on track to get general district judgeships sought by local bar associations. Both the House and Senate plans would approve money for one judgeship each in Arlington and in the eight-county 16th District, which includes Charlottesville.

Del. Gregory Habeeb, R-Salem, said he was gratified by House approval of funding for one circuit and one juvenile and domestic relations judgeship in the Roanoke Valley. “They didn’t just go by the numbers,” said Habeeb, acknowledging the need for a circuit judgeship was based more on administrative needs rather than high caseload numbers.

Both the House and Senate plans would fund five juvenile and domestic relations judgeships, including one in Martinsville where Judge Junius P. Warren will retire in April. The Martinsville vacancy had not appeared on earlier lists of judicial needs.

Neither body proposes hiring a new judge for Norfolk Circuit Court, where the reported caseload is said to be 21.8 percent above average after the departure of two judges last year.

The differences between the House and Senate budget proposals are expected to be resolved in a budget conference committee near the session’s end this month. The budget, after final approval by McDonnell, would determine how many vacant judgeships will be funded and in what jurisdictions.

The Assembly’s election of judges to fill those funded vacancies is scheduled for Feb. 20.

Meanwhile, the anxiously awaited comparison study of judges’ caseloads is to be delivered to the Assembly in November.

Most courts filled out forms to provide information for the study being conducted by the National Center for State Courts, but 11 courts are getting closer scrutiny.

Those courts will get in-person site visits by staffers performing the Virginia Judicial Workload Study.

“The purpose of the visits is for the NCSC staff to learn in more detail about current court operations and the processes used in scheduling and resolving cases,” said Edward M. Macon, assistant executive secretary for the Supreme Court of Virginia.

The courts to be visited were selected “in an effort to get a representative mix of Virginia’s courts to include courts of all sizes from all parts of the state that serve urban, suburban and rural jurisdictions,” Macon said in an email.

He declined to identify the 11 courts getting site visits.