Judicial Redistricting: An Invitation to Comment
January 26, 2015 § 6 Comments
Judicial redistricting is upon us. The legislature is studying judicial redistricting, which, as I understand it, must be enacted in this session.
My question to you citizen-lawyers is: How would you redistrict our courts?
Send me a comment about how you’d do it. You can go macro, commenting on the whole ball of wax, so to speak. Or you can comment on a particular county or district. I’d like for you to include your rationale.
COA Judge Ken Griffis offered his take on what the legislature might have in mine in this post on his blog.
How would you redistrict our courts? Have at it.
The Better Chancery Practice Blog 
Judge Primeaux: I think that the 10th Circuit and 12th Chancery Districts should serve the same counties: Lauderdale, Clarke, and Kemper. I think lawyers like practicing before judges they know best and most Meridian/Quitman/Dekalb lawyers know and appreciate the four sitting judges in these districts. If both sides know how a judge usually rules and conducts hearings and other business, settlements are more easily reached, with a resulting reduction in contested hearings and trials. Very respectfully, Jim Williamson
I believe the committee is considering that very thing.
Warren County cases require almost a year to get a first setting. they need at least one more chancellor and a special master.
No doubt more judges are needed in some places, but I’m hearing that the legislature is more apt to move counties from district to district than to add more judges.
Break out Harrison and Desoto Counties and make them their own chancery districts with two chancellors each. Hinds is not quite 25% bigger than Harrison, and is a stand-alone district with FOUR chancellors. Rankin is SMALLER than both, and is a stand-alone district with two. It’s well past time chancery districts matched population distributions for the modern era.
Don’t practice in circuit court, so won’t speak to those lines. But I should not have to go to Winona to try my Desoto County case.
Makes sense. Desoto is growing so fast that it definitely merits special attention, I would think.