Well, the handwriting is on the wall: It looks like the decision has been made to get rid of Pittsburgh's Magistrates Court. The Powers That Be have apparently already struck a deal. But if you're a taxpayer, you might want to put yourself in their shoes to see what decision you would have made.
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| | | Dan Butler is a judge on Pittsburgh's Magistrates Court. | |
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Allegheny County currently has 55 district justices. They're paid by the state about $60,000 a year, plus benefits. Each one rents an office and courtroom and has a staff; those expenses are paid for by the county.
The city has six judges of the Pittsburgh Magistrates Court. As required by Pittsburgh's Home Rule Charter, we are all lawyers, averaging 20 years of experience. We share responsibility for City Court, where most criminal cases are heard, DUI Court, Housing Court, Traffic Court, Domestic Violence Court and Animal Control Court. We work in one building, which the city built for that purpose.
Under the Pennsylvania Constitution and Judicial Code, our jurisdiction extends to all crimes committed in the city of Pittsburgh, from stalking to burglary, parking tickets to vehicular homicide. Like in the federal system, magistrates are appointed. Every four years the mayor must re-evaluate and re-appoint us, subject to City Council's approval. We are paid $46,000 a year. The state reimburses the city for the entire cost of Magistrates Court.
According to a recent audit by the Supreme Court , in the last three years all of the county's 55 district justices -- put together -- disposed of 536,272 cases, including traffic tickets. During the same three years, Pittsburgh's Magistrates Court, with its six judges, disposed of 1,121,886 cases, including traffic tickets.
The county sets guidelines for how much staff each district justice is permitted. Their benchmark is one staff person for every 1,500 cases.
By that calculation, Pittsburgh Magistrates Court should have a staff of 250. We do just fine with 38, thank you. We collect millions of dollars in fines and costs for the city. We require thousands of people to do community service for hundreds of nonprofit agencies in and around the city. And we have an extremely sophisticated Domestic Violence Court, whose efficiency and proficiency are recognized around the country. The real problem is that the city has 16 elected district justices with 16 offices and staff and . . . almost nothing to do. All the criminal cases filed by university police, the Housing Authority police and, of course, the Pittsburgh police, come to Magistrates Court for centralized, efficient disposition.
The state Supreme Court is now considering whether to dissolve six of those district justice positions because they have hardly any work to do.
The District Justices Association of Allegheny County, perfectly able to smell the coffee, says, "Don't get rid of those six district justices! Take the 16 district justices in the city and have them handle the cases that are now handled by Pittsburgh Magistrates Court. We can use that new Municipal Courthouse the city built . . . but of course we'll keep our current digs, too." And that's the choice. Get rid of the six hardest-working, lowest-paid, most efficient judges in the state -- or get rid of six district justices, nonlawyers who have very little to do.
If ever there was a case of something "not broken," it's the Pittsburgh Magistrates Court. The three administrators in Traffic, Housing and City Court together embody almost 100 years of experience. There is still room for improvement. Pittsburgh could insist that the state pay city magistrates directly, as required by the Pennsylvania Constitution. The state pays Philadelphia's 25 Municipal Court judges and seven Traffic Court judges. They each have a lighter case load than Pittsburgh's six city magistrates. In fact, Pittsburgh's magistrates are the only judges in the state not paid directly by the state, despite the Constitution.
Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it. There was a similar effort in 1970 to have district justices take over City Court. That experiment dissolved in chaos after two years. Then the present system was reinstated.
OK, now you understand the issues. If you had responsibility for making this decision, what would you decide? Me, too. Unfortunately, these decisions are made in places to which we have no access.
Correction/Clarification: (Published June 22, 2002) An article Monday by Dan Butler, a judge on Pittsburgh's Magistrates Court, incorrectly suggested that the city Home Rule Charter requires that city magistrates be lawyers.
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