While the Florida court system is requesting $22 million for technology improvements, it has several other goals for the 2017-18 state budget now being hammered out in the Legislature.
Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Jorge Labarga and State Courts Administrator PK Jameson appeared before legislative panels earlier this year to make pitches for funding to help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the court system.
“The judicial branch is committed to fulfilling its mission, which is to protect rights and liberties, uphold and interpret the law, and provide for the peaceful resolution of disputes,” Labarga said at the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice.
The biggest ticket item was almost $22 million to carry out the plan to upgrade court capabilities and connect the courts around the state to provide better operations and more information about court performance and needs.
But there are several other priorities being requested to improve court operations, including:
• $6.3 million for trial court comprehensive interpreting resources, which would allow technology to enable remote interpreting for better use of interpreters, allow additional resources to obtain interpreters where it has become difficult because of market pressures and adjust salaries to improve interpreter retention.
• $3.3 million for 50 trial court case management positions to improve handling of cases from intake to disposition.
• $3.1 million for 39.5 additional staff attorney positions for the trial court to assist judges with research and case management.
• $6.4 million for the second phase of a pay improvement package for judicial branch employees.
A study three years ago showed judicial branch employees make less than comparable workers in other government and private sector jobs, leading to a high turnover. The courts requested an appropriation to address that issue over two years. In 2014, the Legislature approved $8.1 million for salary adjustments, and this year the courts are seeking $6.4 million to complete that program.
• Pay raises for judges. The courts did not attach a dollar figure to this request. But its submission to lawmakers noted, “It only makes sense that the quality of justice for Florida citizens is directly impacted by the quality of men and women that Florida elects or appoints as judges.”
Labarga told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice that Florida, the third largest state, ranks 27th nationally in judicial salaries.
• $3.4 million to complete a multi-year upgrade to the Third District Court of Appeal Courthouse.
• $3.9 million for 12 new trial court judges as certified by the Supreme Court. That includes three new circuit judges in the Ninth Circuit and one in the Fifth Circuit, and three county judges in Hillsborough County and one each in Citrus, Flagler, Palm Beach, Broward, and Lee counties.
• $418,701 (most of which is a one-time cost) to improve data management and reporting capabilities through new servers and other improvements for the Office of the State Courts Administrator. The new equipment would improve links with local clerks of court and expansion of the existing case management system.
Overall, the court system started with a $508.2 million base budget, with the above requests adding another $48.7 million for a total $556.9 million budget request. Last year, the total approved for the base budget and additional requests was $521.7 million.