CROWN POINT | Lake County judges and lawyers are discussing ways to make local courts more efficient, thorough and less time-consuming before efficiency is thrust upon them by downstate officials.
"Committees of judges and attorneys are meeting to discuss what we do good and what we can do better," said Michael Pagano, a Lake Superior Court magistrate and president of the Lake County Bar Association. "It's something we have to do if we want to be masters of our own fate."
Pagano said court officials have little taste for suggestions to shrink or centralize the county's system of 27 criminal, civil, juvenile, family and municipal courts. But all officials know better efficiency is needed, he said.
State and county records indicate it costs the public more than $24 million to operate all county courts annually.
The National Center for State Courts of Williamsburg, Va., said in a study a year ago the courts' overlapping jurisdictions result in confusion and duplication of public cost.
It suggested abolishing city and town courts in Crown Point, Gary, Hammond, East Chicago, Hobart, Lake Station, Lowell, Merrillville, Schererville and Whiting and creating a centralized county court system.
The center's plan would create a chief judge with the power to move other judges and court personnel to wherever they are needed. Currently, judges remain in specific courts through their careers. The study states that system is too inflexible and results in unfair caseload burdens.
Schererville Town Judge Kenneth Anderson, one of those taking part in the discussions, said last week, "When Mitch Daniels wants to streamline, that usually means reduce services and go to a profit-making model."
Anderson said it would be absurd to abolish all city and town courts because those courts typically generate more revenue from fines and fees than the facilities cost to operate.
"There are some services we deserve, such as a good court system," Anderson said. "I don't think the court should be some kind of Wal-Mart."
Anderson is not alone.
The bar held an all-day seminar this fall on the topic and surveyed 124 judges and attorneys who participated.
Three out of four are opposed to abolishing city and town courts, and more than half are opposed to consolidating city and town courts into the Superior/Circuit Court system.
Some 56 of the participants said they favored closing the less frequently used Superior Courts in Gary, Hammond and East Chicago. More than half favored creating specialized courts for the collection of bad debt and the resolution of inheritance, child support and custody disputes.
Scott Yahne, a Hammond attorney who will be president of the bar in 2008, said, "We need a broad consensus. I can't predict the outcomes."
