Pike will consolidate local court districts

Three magisterial districts to be formed from existing four MILFORD — Responding to a state supreme court directive Joseph Kameen, president judge of the Pike County Court of Common Pleas, on Monday issued a plan that will in 2014 consolidate Pike's four existing magisterial districts to three. Two existing magisterial justice seats will be reduced to one by the retirement of justices Stephen McBride and Jay Rose. Only one new magistrate will be elected to replace them. Essentially, the existing district #3 of Justice Alan Cooper will be split three ways, with Shohola moving to the eastern district, Lackawaxen to the west and portions of Dingman to both eastern and southern districts. Physically, the Milford court office will be discontinued as Justice Deborah Fischer moves the eastern district #1 to the former court of Alan Cooper in Shohola, while Cooper relocates to the new western district #2, the former Palmyra Court of Justice Rose. The new yet-to-be elected justice will occupy the southern district #3 court in Dingmans Ferry. Kameen wrote that the change "was triggered by significant budget shortfalls fo the judiciary over the last several years resulting in tens of millions of dollars in budget cutbacks." Based on state formulae for computing caseloads and workloads Kameen found that all four courts were "significantly behind" court workloads in other counties of similar size. Kameen directed that while a district may be eliminated, the office work shall continue and staff will be reassigned to other offices "Therefore, a reduction in office staff is not contemplated." The proposed realignment would provide estimated workloads of 22,973 in district #1, 23,540 in #3, and 24,701 in #2; and comply with supreme court directives. The public may comment on the plan and the county court will accept written, signed comments through Feb. 17, directed to: Court Administration Office, 410 Broad Street, Milford PA 18337. — David Hulse