News File Photo Judge Maria Barton presides over a hearing in the 89th District Court in Rogers City in December.

ROGERS CITY — A fair shake in court is a little more certain for Presque Isle County residents thanks to a bill signed on Wednesday by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the county’s judges think.

Previously, the county stood to lose the district court judgeship it shares with Cheboygan County as soon as the current 89th District Court judge, Maria Barton, left the bench or chose to not seek reelection.

Under the previous arrangement, the probate judges for each county would have taken on their respective counties’ district court cases – a move that would have burdened already-busy judges and could have deprived the county of efforts to reduce crime and improve lives, one county judge said.

With the governor’s signature on Wednesday, Presque Isle County will retain its district court judgeship when Barton leaves the bench.

Barton has presided over the county’s district court since her election in 2008.

In 2020, her court handled a caseload of 1,667 felony, misdemeanor, and civil cases, according to state court data.

A decade ago, the state reconfigured some judicial districts to eliminate judgeships when the then-sitting judge left the post, said Aaron Gauthier, 53rd Circuit Court judge in Presque Isle and Cheboygan counties.

The state couldn’t downsize judges out of their positions, but, once they retired or otherwise left the bench, the position would no longer be filled. Several regions under that edict did lose a judgeship as their judges left, Gauthier said.

In two counties with three courts, four judges is as low as the community can afford to go, especially given shifts at the state level in recent years, he said.

A push for reform of the state’s criminal justice system, producing what many see as net positive for defendants, has slowed courtrooms’ pace and increased judges’ workload in communities statewide.

Defendants now have an attorney by their side from the first time they enter a courtroom, meaning stronger protections for residents but longer hearings that are harder to schedule.

What once required only a visit to a judge’s chambers by a probation officer now requires a hearing on the court docket.

Courts now schedule hearings at specific times, setting aside the “cattle call” approach in which all participants show up at once and sometimes wait for hours as the judge takes whatever case will best fit into the flow of the court day.

“That’s super-efficient for the judge,” Gauthier said, “but it’s terrible for everybody other than the judge.”

Criminal, civil, and juvenile justice systems and the court user experience are all being reimagined by the state to find better ways to provide justice, he said ― and all of those changes, while better for the dissemination of justice, add to a judge’s to-do list and make everything in court take longer.

On top of those state changes, courts have upped their efforts at creating and improving problem-solving courts like the Swift and Sure court in Presque Isle County.

Such courts decrease the likelihood of repeated crimes and increase public safety, results show ― but, if judges go away, communities might lose such programs because the remaining judges don’t have enough time to oversee them, Gauthier said.

Alarmed by the thought of losing a judgeship, the county’s four judges have for several years been working with the State Court Administrative Office to find a good way and time to try to prevent that loss.

Last year, Rep. Sue Allor, R-Wolverine, introduced a bill seeking to preserve the judgeship. The language was rolled in with other proposed legislation seeking similar law changes for five downstate courts, all of which benefited from the governor’s signature on Wednesday.

The change means the county will continue to pay costs associated with the judgeship that it would have stopped paying had Barton left the bench in the past decade, including the cost of employees and office expenses related to the judgeship. The state pays Barton’s salary.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com. Follow her on Twitter @jriddleX.