48th District to lose one judge through attrition under new law

An article by Kirk Pinho    No Comments

The 48th District Court, located in Bloomfield Hills and serving the west Oakland communities of West Bloomfield Township and Orchard Lake, will be operating with a judicial roster of two judges instead of its current three.

The state Legislature has approved a bevy of bills on the heels of an August 2011 report from the State Court Administrative Office (SCAO) stating that while Oakland County needs a total of eight new judges in its circuit and probate courts, the 48th District Court could undergo a bit of “right-sizing.”

House Bill (HB) 5103, part of a larger, multi-bill legislative package, specifically deals with the 48th District Court, among a slew of others others. Given final approval by state lawmakers last week and sent to Gov. Rick Snyder for his consideration, the bill calls for the 48th District Court to reduce its number of judgeships from three to two through attrition — either on the date a vacancy occurs on the bench, or the date on which the term for an incumbent District Court judge is no longer seeking election or re-election to the bench, whichever is earlier.

“Of course we’ll follow the intent of the legislation when it comes to fruition,” said 48th District Court Judge Diane D’Agostini. “Certainly it will be difficult, but we will do our job and we will follow the intent of the legislation.”

“We have been proactive in a lot of areas in the court in terms of budget reduction and freezes for years, and we are going to continue to be proactive,” D’Agostini said, adding that the court could be winnowed from three to two judges when one retires, or if one of them decides to seek a different elected position, such as on the Oakland County Circuit Court bench.

State Rep. Lisa Brown (D-West Bloomfield, Commerce, Wolverine Lake) voted against HB 5103. She had attempted to amend the legislation on three separate occasions to spare the 48th District Court from losing a judge, but that proposed amendment failed to garner enough support.

“If you look at the report, the judicial excess has actually gone down, so in committee I asked if we could wait a couple years to see if that trend continued,” Brown said. “With this change, we are now going to be in a deficit.”

“The other thing is that potentially this (reduction in judgeships) may not take effect until 2033, so I question why are we addressing this now,” Brown said.

State court officials touted the reduction in jurists statewide that was prompted by last summer’s release of the Judicial Resources Recommendations (JRR) report, which said the state could save roughly $6 million annually by cutting 45 trial court judgeships around the state where the caseload could be handled by a smaller court bench.

The 48th District Court fit the bill, even though the court’s case filings since 2003 have gone up by more than 24 percent, from 38,986 to 48,455 in 2010.

State Reps. Gail Haines (R-Waterford, West Bloomfield), Hugh Crawford (R-Walled Lake, Wixom), Chuck Moss (R-Orchard Lake), Bill Rogers (R-Milford), and Eileen Kowall (R-White Lake, Highland) all voted in favor of the bill when it cleared the state House a second time following some modified verbiage handed back down from the state Senate.

State Sens. Mike Kowall (R-Commerce, Highland, Milford, Walled Lake, Wixom, Wolverine Lake, White Lake, Orchard Lake, West Bloomfield) and David Robertson (R-Waterford) voted in favor of the legislation when it received the approval of the upper chamber.

“The Senate and the House have taken a much-needed step by cutting judgeships that are no longer justified by the workload,” said Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert P. Young, Jr. “This right-sizing of our judiciary is the front edge of reforms we need to make for a more service-oriented and efficient court system.”

The 48th District Court is currently served by Judges Kimberly Small, first elected to her position in 1996; Marc Barron, first elected in 2004; and D’Agostini, first elected in 2000. D’Agostini said she plans to seek re-election this year.

“There’s nothing impacting the Circuit Court,” said Oakland County Circuit Court Administrator Kevin Oeffner. “That SCAO report actually found the Circuit Court to be ‘under-judged,’ that we were short judicial resources.”