Luzerne County president judge urges preservation of all 16 magisterial districts

A reduction in Luzerne County’s 16 magisterial court districts is not warranted at this time, the county Court of Common Pleas is arguing in a new proposed plan.

President Judge Michael T. Vough approved the proposal as part of a requirement to submit a “reestablishment” plan for each judicial district every 10 years.

It stems from a legally-required decennial judicial redistricting process undertaken statewide by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in collaboration with the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts and each district’s president judge, to best allocate court system resources.

The county lost two magisterial districts in the last two realignments, reducing its count from 18 to the current 16.

Most recently, the state Supreme Court approved elimination of the Freeland Magisterial District. Initially set to take effect Jan. 1, 2018 to coincide with the end of then-District Judge Gerald L. Feissner’s term, the reduction was accelerated to 2014 due to Feissner’s decision to retire to part-time status, past published reports said. The Freeland district was absorbed by magisterial districts in Hazle and Sugarloaf townships and Mountain Top.

Prior to that, in 2004, the Supreme Court mandated elimination of one district and accepted the county’s proposal to remove the Edwardsville Magisterial District due to the death of then-Edwardsville District Judge John Hopkins, past reports said. This plan also changed the boundary line jurisdictions of several offices based on caseloads and geographic areas.

In the latest proposal, the county’s proposed plan does not recommend any boundary line changes, said county Court Administrator Paul Hindmarsh.

The proposed Luzerne County Magisterial District Plan is available for review in the Office of Court Administration on the third floor of the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre or under the court section at luzernecounty.org.

Public comments on the county’s proposal will be accepted until 4 p.m. Feb. 28 to Hindmarsh at the courthouse (200 N. River St., Wilkes-Barre, 18711) or by email to Paul.Hindmarsh@luzernecounty.org.

Before reaching a conclusion that no changes were warranted, the court performed a comprehensive analysis of each county magisterial district, a court release said.

Instead of solely comparing case filing statistics, a new “workload” measurement was applied to consider the relative amount of work required by a judge to process different types of cases, the release said.