The Honorable Lawrence E. Jahnke, Presiding Judge
Kathy Narlock, Administrative Assistant
District Court Judges: Lawrence E. Jahnke, Presiding Judge; Kirk Smith; Joel D. Medd; Bruce E. Bohlman; and Debbie Kleven
Judicial Referees: Harlan Dyrud and David Vigeland.
Number of Counties in District: 2
District Court Chambers: Grand Forks
District Court
Case fillings are shown in the chart on the right.
In November 1998, we implemented, on a one year trial basis, a split criminal and civil calendar. Two judges were assigned to handle all criminal matters; three judges handled all civil matters. The trial proved to be an efficient way of handling our caseload, and it has now been adopted on a permanent basis. We have determined that an 18 month rotation between the calendars is best for our situation, with a staggered assignment of the criminal calendar judges.
During 1999 preliminary plans were made to establish a juvenile drug court program in Grand Forks County. Judge Debbie Kleven will be the judge assigned to this pilot program when it starts in 2000.
A strong caseload management system, implemented by our trial court administrative assistant, has resulted in a dramatic reduction in overage case processing in this district. In fact, during the last reporting period, not a single case was outside the time processing parameters without a valid explanation.
Juvenile Court
Our juvenile court staff have had another busy year. Although the actual filings were down slightly (3%) from 1998, they remain well above the filings during 1997. We continue to have one of the highest volumes of in-custody (detention/shelter care) intakes in the state. Our juvenile court staff continues to work hard with the "Keys" program and continues to move closer toward implementation of certain elements of the balanced approach. Innovative approaches to effective juvenile probation services continues to be a top priority of the Northeast Central Judicial District juvenile court.
NORTHEAST CENTRAL JUDICIAL DISTRICT CASELOAD FOR CALENDAR YEARS 1998 AND 1999
| Case Filings/ Dispositions | 1998 (F) (D) | 1999 (F) (D) | ||
| Civil Small Claims Admin Traffic Criminal Juvenile | 3,675 719 8,186 5,016 395 | 5,969 729 8,186 7,650 395 | 3,480 467 10,474 4,110 377 | 7,337 518 10,474 6,608 377 |