Public Notice Detail

HASTINGS, MN.  (February 18, 1999) – Dramatic caseload increases and changing demographics have stretched the resources of Minnesota’s court system, severely reducing the amount of time judges can spend on many cases.

“Today, judges can spend just minutes on many cases with tremendous impact on families and individuals,” said Chief Judge Leslie M. Metzen of the state’s First Judicial District.  “Minnesotans deserve a judicial system that delivers more than this assembly line-style justice.”

A bill before the Minnesota Legislature would create 18 new trial court judgeships statewide, including four in the First District.  Currently, Minnesota has 254 judges serving in its 10 judicial districts, 29 of them in the First District.  The First District consists of Carver, Dakota, Goodhue, LeSueur, McLeod, Scott and Sibley counties.

“While our court system has increased judicial productivity substantially over the last decade, and new technologies are helping to increase efficiency, we have exhausted the limits of our existing resources and now face further reducing the time judges spend on each case,” Metzen said.

In the past decade, the statewide court caseload has increased 41 percent, with 62,000 additional major cases handled each year, while the number of judges on the bench has increased just 11 percent.  Much of the growth is attributed to major criminal cases, which are up 74 percent since 1988, and to juvenile cases, which have doubled.  Filings in time-consuming civil cases, particularly in contract and personal injury matters, are up 10 percent since 1987. 

Increased community efforts to deter more serious offenses through greater attention to low-level crimes, such as juvenile misdemeanors and drug violations, have added significantly to the court’s caseload.  Legislative changes in child protection laws, civil court procedures and serious felony statutes are also adding to court workloads.  Statewide, the number of minutes judges are able to spend on key family-related cases like domestic abuse, delinquency and juvenile traffic offenses have been cut by as much as half. 

Population growth also has fueled caseload increases in many regions.  Since 1990, the population of the First District has increased by 19.3 percent.

“Adding these new judges will benefit this judicial district and all Minnesota citizens by providing the resources needed to effectively address the complex issues facing our society, “ Metzen said.