The Hennepin County District Court handles more than 10,000 traffic tickets a week.
That's a lot of processing. And it's just a tiny fraction of the work the state's largest court system does to handle almost 800,000 cases annually.
In an era of budget cuts and an impending government shutdown, the system is understaffed and overloaded. But in a new pilot project, people who run the county probate court are making a creative attempt at easing the work demands.
Probate court, which hears cases regarding wills, trusts and guardianship for children and incapacitated adults, is looking for attorneys to fill in as volunteer judges in uncontested cases. It's proposed as a cost-effective, efficient way to give the county's judges some relief.
Jay Quam, presiding judge of the county's Probate/Mental Health Court, said that although the number of probate judges has shrunk, the number of cases has remained constant. The team of volunteer attorneys known as adjunct judicial officers, or AJOs, would handle undisputed cases to free up referees so they could handle more contested matters and get them to trial faster.
The pool of four to six AJOs will be selected from experienced probate court attorneys who apply, and they may continue to practice while they volunteer. They will be screened by a committee of their peers and selected by Chief Judge James Swenson.
Quam said he expects attorneys will give their time without pay not only to help the court system, but to see what it's like to make decisions from the bench. The experience is worthwhile, he said, and doesn't look bad on a résumé.
The project has the support of probate attorneys and permission from the Minnesota Supreme Court. It would begin with using an AJO a half-day a week.
