Within the early days of the 2023 legislative session, state Sens. Max Burns, R-Sylvania, and Harold Jones II, D-Augusta, approached the Senate Judiciary Committee with a easy request: The Augusta circuit is overworked and desires one other superior courtroom decide.
In 2021 the Columbia County judicial circuit separated from the Augusta circuit, which initially consisted of Augusta-Richmond, Burke and Columbia counties. This created a 25.5-year cumulative expertise hole between the Columbia circuit’s three superior courtroom judges and the Augusta circuit’s 5. This was an enormous deal, as Augusta’s less-experienced judges are confronted with a a lot greater quantity of felony instances and is mirrored of their total workload. Data collected by the Judiciary Council of Georgia exhibits that Augusta’s superior courtroom judges carry a median workload of 1.5 judges, whereas Columbia’s have a median workload of 0.9 judges.