The Honorable Allan L. Schmalenberger, Presiding Judge
Ardean Ouellette, Trial Court Administrator
District Court Judges: Allan L. Schmalenberger, Presiding Judge; Maurice R. Hunke; Ronald L. Hilden; and Zane Anderson.
Number of Counties in District: 8
District Court Chambers: Dickinson and Bowman
District Court
The Southwest Judicial District is currently testing digital audio recording technology as a pilot project. Digital audio recording is the recording and storing of judicial proceedings on a computer in a network environment. It provides for the integration of the recorder's annotations and the judge's notes with the digital recording for easy access anywhere over the network.
On December 2, 1999, the North Dakota Supreme Court issued its order abolishing Judgeship No. 5, with chambers in Bowman, upon the expiration of the current term of Judge Zane Anderson on December 31, 2000. With the reduction from four judges to three judges in the Southwest Judicial District, the district has commenced a review of its assignment plan to best use its remaining resources to serve the eight counties in the district.
All the district judges are assigned throughout the district as necessary to assure an equitable distribution of the caseload and to promote a fair, expeditious disposition of all cases in compliance with the docket currency standards. During 1999, the district was in compliance with such standards.
Juvenile Court
The Southwest district juvenile court has expanded on resources for tobacco education and alcohol education in the rural communities. We continue to use the Keys to Innervisions program to increase the skills and self-sufficiency of juveniles. We have referred several cases for victim/offender conferencing and hope to use this service more in the future. We continue to broker with the Children's Services Coordinating Committee to address needs of children in our community.
SOUTHWEST 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 | 1,561 383 3,502 2,239 144 | 2,370 388 3,502 3,354 144 | 1,294 369 6,871 2,268 130 | 2,068 383 6,817 3,199 130 |