State judiciary budget cuts to bring trial delays

    The Iowa Judicial Branch recently announced that all judicial employees will take 10 unpaid furlough days during the remainder of this fiscal year, which ends June 30. The budget of the state?s judicial branch is being cut by 7.1 percent, and the state also plans to eliminate nearly 200 jobs this fiscal year.

    County Attorney  Barb Edmondson said the cuts and the 10 furlough days will assuredly affect the court system in Washington County. She said that the most obvious impact is that there will be greater delays in court cases.

    Edmondson said she fears there will be difficulty in obtaining documents such as emergency, restraining and injunction orders in a timely fashion. She said those are the kinds of things that should be done on a daily basis, but if a judge is not available, there is no choice but to wait until the next day.

    ?Anything that can wait until the next routine court day will be delayed,? said Edmondson. ?That could mean a delay over the weekend.?

    Edmondson said she is especially worried about what the furloughs and the cuts will do to felony trials, which are normally three or four days long. Edmondson said that it might be difficult to find an open week to fit in a four-day trial. She said the courts might have to wait for months for that kind of time to open up, spelling inconveniences for the witnesses, the victims and the defendant.

    Edmondson stressed that judges would not require the attorneys to wrap up their cases early in order to fit them into the allotted time. She said that the judges are scrupulous in wanting justice to prevail, and would allow the attorneys to present all of the pertinent evidence in a trial.

    Edmondson said that the judiciary will really feel the pinch from the cuts because, unlike other agencies that can cut programs, the judiciary can really only cut personnel.

    Edmondson said the state cut services about seven years ago. She said the judiciary trimmed many of its services at that time. She said that all the streamlining that could be done has been done.

For the full story, see the Nov. 13 edition of The Washington Evening Journal