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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Ind. Courts - More on "Clark Circuit Court to hold night sessions"

Updating this ILB entry from Sept. 12th, Braden Lammers has a story in the Jeffersonville News & Tribune headlined "Tuesdays with Moore-y: Clark County Circuit Court starts pilot night program." Some quotes:

Clark County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Moore will be working late on Tuesdays, at least until the end of the year.

Moore began his Night Court program Tuesday, aimed at addressing issues of increased demands for court time, providing additional options to people who cannot leave work during the day and increasing the access for court cases to be heard.

“I think this is consistent with the theme of changes in the court system,” Moore said. “This is also consistent with my thoughts that the judicial system should be more available to the needs of litigants.”

Those involved in litigation will have the option of having hearings between 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday evenings. The majority of the proceedings will be initial hearings, motions and discovery disputes, with criminal cases being heard first.

Other cases that will be heard are agreed orders, family cases, estate matters and probationary compliance hearings. * * *

“We envision having initial hearings here, we envision doing some misdemeanor pleas here to free up some of the afternoon court for some of the contested cases that take longer,” said Dawn Elston, deputy prosecuting attorney for Clark County. “We’ll just have to see if we have enough [cases] to keep the docket busy at night.”

One of the cases keeping the court busy Tuesday was Patrick Price’s, who was appearing for a petition to revoke probation, of which he was absolved.

Price said he was not given the choice as to when he was asked to appear, but was happy about having his case heard later in the day, as he was coming from out of town.

“If I had to pick early morning or at night, I would’ve definitely taken the night,” he said.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 23, 2009 09:51 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts