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Judges juggle demanding caseloads
Okaloosa judges
There are six judges in the First Judicial Circuit who serve in Okaloosa County, which also has three county judges. Two of the county judges preside in Shalimar and one presides in Crestview.
County judges handle small claims and misdemeanor and traffic cases, including DUI, among other things.
Circuit judges handle felony criminal cases. Circuit judges also preside over business and civil disputes involving $15,000 or more, while county judges handle cases less than $15,000.
Circuit judges also have exclusive jurisdiction over family and probate, dependency, divorce and domestic violence injunctions.
The addition of a new circuit judge seat in Crestview and implementation of a program aimed at streamlining cases involving families are among changes made last year in Okaloosa County to help offset bloated caseloads experienced by judges.
Stagnant population growth in Escambia County prompted the January 2011 transfer of a First Judicial Circuit judge seat from there to Crestview, which experienced a 42 percent growth in population from 2000 to 2010, according to U.S. Census figures.
"This is the first time ever there were two sitting circuit judges in the north end of the county," Circuit Judge Terry Ketchel said. "Just a few years ago we didn't have one sitting permanent circuit judge in the north county. We now have two."
Circuit Judge Michael Flowers was elected to fill the new Crestview post and joined Ketchel, who has served in Crestview since 2007. There are also four circuit judges at the Okaloosa County Courthouse Annex in Shalimar serving south county residents.
The First Judicial Circuit is comprised of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties. The heaviest caseloads in those four counties are found in Okaloosa County, Kectchel said.
About four to five more judges are needed to meet the caseload demands throughout the First Judicial District, Ketchel said, but given budget constraints that isn't going to happen.
And even though the judges aggressively manage their budgets, the sheer numbers of cases crush the system, Ketchel said.
"One of the biggest challenges is that I don't have enough time to make a good decision," Ketchel said. "I've got a half day and we are dealing with custody issues. Mom. Dad. Three hours. C'mon, can I really understand this fully in three hours? Probably not, but that's what we've got. So we make a ruling and we do the best that we can."
Okaloosa County Clerk of Courts Don Howard stated in an email that in 2011 Okaloosa's six circuit judges were each assigned, on average, 5,543 new cases.
Howard said the numbers could be misleading, however, given the complexity of some cases.
"Some case types can extend beyond one year and require judicial involvement for multiple years," Howard wrote in the email. "Even within the same case type various degrees of judicial involvement could be required.
"An example would be, for instance, a dissolution of marriage case that is part of our Circuit Civil division. You could have a non-contested simplified divorce case that requires very little judicial involvement or a very complex divorce case that could extend for multiple years and require numerous hearings and extensive direct judicial involvement."
One attempt to streamline the process is implementation of the first Unified Family Court in Okaloosa County, over which Ketchel presides.
"The concept is to have one judge handle all the cases of one family, so, one judge, one family," Ketchel said.
In the past one judge may have handled a domestic violence injunction, while another judge presided over a divorce case involving the same family where the parents are fighting over custody of their children. Many times the judges were unaware of the other cases involving the same family members.
"So, I'm halfway through a divorce, working on custody," Ketchel said, citing an example. "We've only got three hours and are halfway through and somebody raises (the issue) that there has been an incidence of domestic violence. This is a big deal."
Ketchel recounted another case involving a family where there was a domestic violence case, a divorce case and three separate cases involving the Department of Children and Families.
Rather than handle the cases separately, Ketchel was able to deal with them all at once.
"I scheduled the final hearing — all day, one case," Ketchel said. "Fortunately the case settled. They were able to resolve all of those issues."
Crestview attorney Nathan Boyles lauded the work of Okaloosa County's judges and said that unfortunately, they judicial system gets the least recognition of the three branches of government.
"Believe it or not, the judicial system has the biggest impact on your everyday lives," Boyles said at a December meeting of the Government Issues Committee of the Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce. "The decisions that are made by judges impact how businesses and individuals make their decisions."
