PIERRE, S.D. – South Dakota’s Unified Judicial System received public input yesterday at three different sessions held in Rapid City, Sturgis and Lemmon on a proposal that would combine the administrative operations of the Fourth and Seventh Judicial Circuits in western South Dakota. The proposal would affect 16 counties, including Pennington, Meade, Lawrence and Custer counties. Court officials say the goal is to improve efficiency, but stress that no decision has been made and the courts are not being merged at this time. Judicial officials yesterday explained the reasoning behind the proposal and how it would affect current operations. The Judicial System periodically considers judicial circuit boundaries to help ensure workloads are distributed efficiently and courts can meet the needs of court users. Factors considered include changing demographics, court caseloads, connections among communities and trade areas, and the use of personnel and positions. The last statewide study of judicial circuit boundaries occurred in 1999, when the Eighth Judicial Circuit was eliminated. Judicial officials say no court office closures are part of this proposal. In fact, they say one of the goals identified in the proposal is to use resources more efficiently in an effort to avoid consolidation or reduction of UJS services at the county level. Several comments at Wednesday’s meetings came from attorneys who shared concerned about the differences between the two circuits. Belle Fourche attorney Kellen Willert attended the Sturgis forum and said “this feels more like an absorption as opposed to a merger. They really do things differently in the seventh circuit. It appears to be an efficiency problem for Pennington County.” He, along with several others, felt merging will have a lot of unintended collateral effects. The Fourth Judicial Circuit currently serves Butte, Corson, Dewey, Harding, Lawrence, Meade, Perkins and Ziebach counties. The Seventh Circuit includes Custer, Fall River, Oglala Lakota and Pennington counties. People unable to attend a meeting can submit written comments to the State Court Administrator’s Office through October 1. The Unified Judicial System says public feedback will be reviewed before any formal proposal is sent to the South Dakota Supreme Court. Share via: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More