State Court Expansion, SPLOST, Hospital Bond on Agenda for Franklin County BOC Work Session

At their work session this evening, Franklin County Commissioners are expected to discuss a plan by Northern Judicial Circuit District Attorney Parks White to remove misdemeanor court trials from Superior Court and transfer them to State Court.

Last month, the Franklin County Grand Jury called on the county to work with White to reduce the caseload in Superior Court.

One way White said that could be done is by expanding State Court in Elbert County to also include Franklin, Madison and Hart counties.

“Except in Elbert County, the DA’s office has to handle every case that comes up for a trial,” Smith said. “So if someone gets a traffic ticket and they want to send that up for a jury trial, we have to handle that. If we could somehow lessen the misdemeanors and traffic citations that end up in Superior Court and have a State court handle those or any misdemeanor case, that would help.”

Currently, the six ADA’s in White’s office are some of the most overworked and underpaid attorneys in any circuit in the State, according to the DA.

White says at any given time, they are typically handling roughly 500 cases at a time, which he says limits their ability to give their full attention to the more serious cases.

“They’re not working 40-hour work weeks. They’re working more than that; often in court sometimes until 9p at night,” White explained. “They can only devote five hours to each case, max. And anytime above that, they have to take time away from other cases. You just can’t handle any felony with five hours. You need preparation time, such as getting and receiving warrants, getting and taking depositions, getting the evidence from the Sheriff’s office, the investigative agencies reviewing that evidence, etc.”

White said about a third of the cases his ADA’s handle could be heard in State Court.

In other business tonight, the Board will hear from County Manager Beth Thomas on the election results for the SPLOST and Bond referendums and get an update on the hospital bond payment due in December.

Tonight’s meeting begins at 6p in the Justice Center in Carnesville.