State Court Judge John Edwards came before the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners

to ask them to begin the process of asking for an additional State
Court Judge for Lowndes County. An additional State Court Judge
would have to be authorized by the Georgia Legislature, then filled
initially by an appointee by the Georgia Governor.

At this morning’s Work Session,
the Judge noted that with the

recent reforms enacted by the Georgia Legislature,
many crimes previously classified as felonies are now
classified as misdemeanors. This has reduced the burden on the
Superior Courts and on the prison populations (a good thing)
however, it has raised the load on the State Court without an
increase in resources.

Here’s

Part 1 of 2:

Special Presentation by State Court Judge John Edwards Part 1 of 2:

Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 August 2013.

The Judge noted that Lowndes County is the

fifth busiest State Court
behind Clayton, Cobb, Fulton, and Gwinnett and they all have more
than one judge, as do the next three counties behind Lowndes in
number of cases and busier than some counties with larger
populations.

He compared Lowndes with Bibb County (11,976 cases,
2 judges,
156,000 population).

This leads me to wonder…

Why this does Lowndes county have nearly 25,000 cases in state court
for a county with a popluation of just 110,000?

Even accounting that some of it is from the Interstate, being the
first county in the state on I75, that number seems very high.

Here’s

Part 2 of 2:

Special Presentation by State Court Judge John Edwards Part 2 of 2:

Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 26 August 2013.

-gretchen