How caseloads determine judgeships

Georgia monitors the number of cases in the state's superior courts to determine how many judges are needed in each of its 49 circuits.

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The weighted caseload system - devised by the state's Administrative Office of the Courts - is a complex and detailed accounting of judges' workloads that takes into account not only the number of cases but also their complexity.

The weighted caseload number is then compared with the number of judges in a circuit, and when the caseload number is more than 1 point above the number of judges, a new judgeship can be recommended.

The latest judgeships were created in 2002. Augusta, which had seven judges at the time, was one of four circuits to get a new judgeship then, although its weighted caseload justified the need for only six. The eighth judgeship was recommended by the Council of Superior Court Judges and created by the General Assembly.

"The numbers are good, and they mean something, but they don't mean everything,'' Billie Bolton, of the Administrative Office of the Courts, said of the weighed caseload numbers. If two-thirds of the Council of Superior Court Judges vote to recommend a new judgeship, the recommendation will be forwarded to the General Assembly, she said.

Superior Court Judge J. Carlisle Overstreet was a member of the council's executive committee that year and became president the next year.

The Augusta, Cobb, Atlanta, Stone Mountain, Brunswick, Gwinnett and Southern circuits, in effect, each added a judge in 2002 by calling in senior judges to work nearly full time.

Only Cobb, Gwinnett, Stone Mountain, Brunswick and Southern have caseload averages near or above the state average of 1,897, according to the most recent Administrative Office of the Courts report. Only Cobb, Gwinnett and Southern are on the list of circuits that hope to have new judgeships created by the General Assembly in the coming year.

A GROWING TASK

The caseload for the Augusta Judicial Circuit - Richmond, Columbia and Burke counties - over the past decade:

1994 - 9,298

1995 - 8,975

1996 - 9,385

1997 - 9,317

1998 - 9,112

1999 - 8,398

2000 - 8,063

2001* - 13,387

2002 - 13,907

2003 - 13,961

*Increase since 2001 is mostly the result of an increase in civil and domestic cases filed in Richmond County Superior Court.

--From the Sunday, December 5, 2004 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle