PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Unified Judicial System has announced it will host three public forums on Wednesday, August 26, to gather community input on a proposed merger of the state’s Fourth and Seventh Judicial circuits.

The administrative proposal, put forward by the U.J.S. State Court Administrator’s Office, aims to increase operational efficiencies across the region.

Officials stress that these forums are designed to share information and collect public feedback before any formal rule change is submitted to the South Dakota Supreme Court.

Each forum will feature a short presentation, followed by a dedicate question-and-answer and public comment session.

Public Forums will be held in Rapid City, Sturgis and and Lemmon.

The Rapid City forum will be held on August from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Pennington County Courthouse. The Sturgis forum will follow at 11:00 a.m. at the Meade County Courthouse. The third, and final forum, will be held at the Lonesome Dove Conference Center is Lemmon at 3:30 p.m.

If approve,d the merger would combine the administrative structures of two sprawling West River circuits, including the Fourth Judicial Circuit and the Seventh Judicial Circuit.

The Fourth Circuit covers Butte, Corson, Dewey, Harding, Lawrence, Meade, Perkins and Ziebach Counties. The Seventh Circuit includes Custer, Fall River, Oglala Lakota and Pennington Counties.