My Plan to Improve Justice in Municipal Court

By Jonathan P. Dameron

I will work to limit the time police officers wait in court so they can be on the streets making our communities safer. I will work to reduce the time witnesses, victims and the parties wait in court, because their time is just as important as mine. Justice delayed is justice denied, and I plan to improve the problem of delay in municipal court.

If you've ever been in a municipal courtroom, you know that it is a busy place. At nine o'clock, when court is supposed to begin, everyone whose case is scheduled to be heard that morning gathers in the courtroom. A room full of lawyers, witnesses, victims, police officers and defendants wait for court to begin. Some will wait all morning to have their cases heard. The problem of delay in our courtrooms is exacerbated when the judge is significantly late in arriving to the bench.

Delay in our courtrooms causes 4 basic problems:

1. Police officers are impeded in their job of keeping our communities safe. If police officers are waiting all morning in court, they are not able to be out in our communities keeping them safe.

2. Witnesses, victims and other parties are unnecessarily burdened. Municipal court is the people's court. The time of witnesses, victims and other parties is just as important as the judge's time. They have jobs, school and families and need to get back to their lives.

3. Police officers are paid taxpayer money to wait in Court. We need to reduce the the amount of time police officers wait in court. It is a better and more efficient use of taxpay money to pay police to keep our communities safe instead of paying them to wait in court.

4. High case backlogs mean cases take too long to get resolved. When court does not begin on time and cases are ineffectively managed, fewer cases are resolved. The unresolved cases are scheduled for additional court dates. This causes a backlog of cases. The higher the backlog, the longer it takes for cases to get resolved. Justice delayed is justice denied. The people of Hamilton County have a strong interest in seeing that cases, particularly criminal cases, are resolved as quickly as possible.

Proposed Solutions

I have two proposed solutions to reduce the waiting time in our municipal courts. First, I will begin court on time. An elected official who makes $100,000 per year in taxpayer dollars should arrive at the bench on time. When court starts on time, more cases are resolved and the time people have to wait is reduced.

Secondly, I will work to manage cases so that everyone will not have to arrive in court at the same time. With this change, cases will have assigned times. This means less time waiting in court for the officers who keep our communities safe, and for the other parties who have lives to get back to.

Conclusion

Of course a judge should be firm, fair and impartial. I will do that.

Municipal court is the people's court. Its purpose is to serve the people. The people who come to municipal court should be treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The solutions I propose to the problem of delay honor the people, and will improve justice in our municipal court.