State Court Judge John Edwards came before the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners to ask them to begin the process of asking for an additional State Court Judge for Lowndes County. An additional State Court Judge would have to be authorized by the Georgia Legislature, then filled initially by an appointee by the Georgia Governor.

At this morning’s Work Session, the Judge noted that with the recent reforms enacted by the Georgia Legislature, many crimes previously classified as felonies are now classified as misdemeanors. This has reduced the burden on the Superior Courts and on the prison populations (a good thing) however, it has raised the load on the State Court without an increase in resources.

Here’s Part 1 of 2:

Special Presentation by State Court Judge John Edwards Part 1 of 2:
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 August 2013.

The Judge noted that Lowndes County is the fifth busiest State Court behind Clayton, Cobb, Fulton, and Gwinnett and they all have more than one judge, as do the next three counties behind Lowndes in number of cases and busier than some counties with larger populations.

He compared Lowndes with Bibb County (11,976 cases, 2 judges, 156,000 population).

This leads me to wonder…

Why this does Lowndes county have nearly 25,000 cases in state court for a county with a popluation of just 110,000?

Even accounting that some of it is from the Interstate, being the first county in the state on I75, that number seems very high.

Here’s Part 2 of 2:

Special Presentation by State Court Judge John Edwards Part 2 of 2:
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 August 2013.

-gretchen

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