Eleven mostly rural counties will lose judges under a bill passed 33-16 by the Indiana Senate last Tuesday, April 15. Scott Superior Court is one of those targeted for elimination
House Bill 1144— which adds judges and magistrates in Elkhart, Hamilton, Lawrence and Vigo counties— has moved through the entire session without language abolishing courts.
Then, on April 10, hours before a committee deadline, an amendment was added in the Senate Appropriations Committee eliminating one court each in Blackford, Carroll, Gibson, Greene, Jennings, Monroe, Newton, Owen, Pulaski, Rush and Scott counties, along with six juvenile magistrate positions in Marion County.
This provision is estimated to save the state approximately $748,885 in Fiscal Year 2027 and up to $2.75 M in Fiscal Year 2032, according to a fiscal analysis.
District 43 Republican Senator Randy Maxwell, who represents Scott County, voted in favor of the bill as did District 45 Republican Chris Garten who owns a business— Signature Countertops Inc.— in Scottsburg. Maxwell, from Dearborn County, was appointed to the senate in Sept. 2023. His term runs through 2026.
Nearby District 44 Senator Eric Koch (R-Bedford) voted against the bill.
Sen. Jean Leising, R-Oldenburg, said constituents in her district were shocked by the move.
“That created quite a frenzy from the people that maybe should have been expecting it. I don’t know, but they weren’t expecting it,” she said.
She voted against the proposal. She said she knows the courts were chosen based on caseload statistics but she preferred that there had been more transparency with the list being made public earlier in the process.
“I would just hope that in the future when things like this are done that maybe it was a more open process so those counties can come speak up,” Leising said. “If a county now has two judges and you do away with one of them, it’s a tremendous impact.”
The general idea of reallocation was discussed in a study committee in October 2024. Essentially, Indiana uses a weighted caseload study that assesses how much judicial time is needed for different types of cases. Then it looks at how many cases are filed to determine how many judges and magistrates are needed for the caseload.
For years lawmakers have added state-funded court officers when the statistics have shown more judges are needed to handle additional cases. But as population has shifted away from some rural counties, they have never taken a judge away— even if the weighted caseload shows they have too many court officers.
Sen. Liz Brown, (R-Fort Wayne) who voted in favor of the bill, said every two years the study committee looks at the need for court officers when lawmakers are crafting a new state budget. That’s because the state pays for the salaries of judges and magistrates— currently about $183,000 and $146,000, respectively.
“At the same time we looked at where there is not a need in the state,” she said. “I want to assure you that this was not done with any sense of personality… this is strictly where is the need in the state of Indiana.”
Brown said “courts that are losing a judge, we looked at them on their own, independently, and said there is not sufficient need here.”
The weighted caseload study shows, for instance, that Monroe County has ten judges but only needs 7.87. Blackford County has two judges but the study shows it needs less than one.
The bill now goes back to the House, where court abolishments were not originally part of the measure. That chamber can either accept the changes or send the bill to conference committee for final negotiations. If the house and senate conference committee concurs, Scott Superior Court was be eliminated Dec. 31, 2028.