Judge Looks to Thin Out Crowds

DURHAM, NC -- Herald-Sun, March 13, 2006

Judge looks to thin out crowds
By John Stevenson

District Court Judge Craig Brown says he knows well that there is "a big difference between a good idea and one that works." But in a courthouse bursting at the seams, any idea that might improve efficiency is worth trying, in Brown's opinion. With that in mind, Brown will experiment this week with a simple plan to move people more quickly through Durham's main misdemeanor forum.

The courtroom in question is on the fourth floor of the Judicial Building and often is host to standing-room-only throngs. Cases ranging from trespassing to simple assault to noise violations are handled there. The room has a rated capacity of only 125 people. When as many as 300 tried to cram inside several times lately, the county fire marshal was summoned to intervene. Authorities dealt with the situation by shifting some defendants to another courtroom nearby -- a move that presumably pleased the marshal but did nothing to boost overall efficiency. Because there weren't enough judges to go around, one judge had to scuttle back and forth, giving neither room his undivided attention.

The situation is expected to become dicey again on Thursday, when 400 cases are on the district criminal docket. That's where Brown's idea comes in. As things stand now, court officials call out the names of all defendants at the beginning of each day -- taking as long as 40 minutes to do so. Then, once officials know who is present and who isn't, they call the names of the defendants again to determine which cases will need to be pushed back until a later date. Meanwhile, the crowd generally doesn't thin out. So why not allow requests for postponements to be made at the outset, Brown asked. That way, those who were granted delays could leave the courtroom quickly, he said. "We've got to test it," the judge said. "We've got to see how this lovely idea will work in reality. I'm convinced it will ultimately save time, but it may need to be tweaked. I'm not wedded to any particular way of doing it."

In addition, Brown said he would handle other routine business at the beginning of each day this week rather than delaying it until as late as 10:30 or 11 a.m., as in the past. Since courtroom overcrowding usually is a morning rather than an afternoon problem, his idea might go far toward improving things, the judge predicted.

Brown is not the only one brainstorming about possible ways to improve judicial efficiency and alleviate overcrowding. Lawyer Kerry Sutton, who was motivated by court safety concerns to repeatedly call the fire marshal in recent weeks, has a few ideas of her own. She said in a March 2 letter to Chief District Judge Elaine Bushfan that it might help to limit the number of cases any one law-enforcement officer could have on a given day. A member of the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers Board of Governors, Sutton noted that a particular state trooper had 141 cases on Durham's traffic docket Friday. Perhaps a court staff member could make sure officers' cases were spread out rather than clustered on certain dates, Sutton suggested. "Proactively monitoring the number of officers and cases allowed on each day will go a long way towards creating a safer environment for everyone in our courthouse," she predicted.

And while a criminal courtroom on the fourth floor of the Judicial Building is overflowing on most mornings, a large traffic courtroom on the second floor usually has room to handle far more defendants than are scheduled, Sutton added. So why not move some minor cases -- such as marijuana possession and noise violations -- from the fourth to the second floor, she said.

"While each idea seems like a minor fix, I understand that the workings of the court system are like a cruise ship and tiny changes in direction require huge efforts by everyone involved," Sutton wrote. "Nevertheless, I am fearful that courtroom crowding will be the iceberg to our Titanic if the problem is not aggressively and expediently addressed and resolved."