Baltimore County, MD Hello Baltimore County, 30 Nov 2016

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From YouTube: Inside the Circuit Court--Hello Baltimore County December 2016

Description

Chief Administrative Judge Kathleen Cox offers an overview of what to expect for your day in court, whether as a as a juror or a litigant.

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Welcome to hello, baltimore county., I'm your host, ellen kobler., as you know, local government,, just like at the federal level,, includes three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial..

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We are very pleased to be joined in studio today by circuit court. Administrative chief judge kathleen cox.

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Thank you so much for joining us.. Thank you for having me. so,. Could you start by kind of giving us an overview of the courts?.

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I think we all kind of know little bits and pieces., but how does it all work? in maryland, there are basically three levels in the court system.

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The court system that most of us are familiar with is the district court,, which has traffic court, landlord/tenant,.

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Less serious criminal, offenses,, less serious suits between people.

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It's kind of the people's court and it's the level where most people go.

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The next level,, which is the circuit court, where I am, that's a court of general jurisdiction that has the more serious criminal cases,.

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The family law cases, the juvenile cases,.

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The civil lawsuits between parties --, it really has a full range of everything.

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Most people end up in circuit court because they get a summons for jury service..

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But that's the court that hears the broader range of trials.

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And then, above that in maryland, are the appellate courts.

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Those are a state-wide court system where, from the circuit courts.

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And from some of the district court levels,, if the people are dissatisfied with the outcome of their case or think the case was decided wrong,, you can ask the appellate court to review it.

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each county has its own district court and its own circuit court.

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And then all of the counties throughout the state funnel their cases up to the appellate courts..

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So in baltimore county, we're fortunate to have three district court locations.

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There's one in towson, there's one in catonsville,, there's one at essex, and in fact there's a groundbreaking at the end of this year on the new court facility.

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That's going to be in catonsville., but the circuit court is a single court in baltimore county,.

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Which is located in towson.

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Okay. and how do cases get assigned to different judges, --.

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In I guess, both the district and the circuit court?.

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Okay. I'll talk first about the circuit, because it's the one I'm most familiar with. in baltimore county,. We actually get over 30,000 cases filed every year in the circuit court.

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they get assigned in a central system where we process them in on every day;.

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We have soon to be 20 judges on that court.

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they get a docket of cases. about a third of the cases are family cases.

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about a third of the cases, are criminal cases.

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and about a third of them. Are civil cases.

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so, every week,, every day, we have an assignment office.

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That looks to see how many cases can move and as soon as a judge is done,, a new case is assigned.

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So, basically, all judges hear all different types of cases.

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In the district court,, they have an enormous volume of cases.

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They have dockets by type assigned to a judge on each day.

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So each court has a certain number of days where they hear only landlord/tenant cases, or they hear only criminal cases.

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Or they hear traffic citations.

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in the district court, we'll have a docket that starts in the morning.

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They'll have another one in the afternoon., so a judge may hear 40 or 50 citations in a single day.

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One of the jobs within the court is to move people's cases.

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As quickly as we can so that you get a decision and you get it promptly.

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Okay., you mentioned jury duty.

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What should jurors know when they get the letter in the mail.

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And what should they expect when they report?.

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One of the things you should know when you get the letter is it directs you to a website, if you're more comfortable, responding that way.?

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But if you need to reschedule,, you can reschedule your date.

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We want to make sure that people come to jury service, prepared and able to sit.

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In baltimore county,, the requirement is that you sit either for one day, or if you're picked, to sit on a particular case,.

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You sit until the conclusion of that case.

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and different cases take different lengths of time..

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What happens when you come in the door is: there's an orientation film.

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It tells you a little bit about jury service..

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We want people to feel comfortable and at ease.

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there's an assembly room where people sit and basically watch movies until there's a case. That's ready to be heard..

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You then go up into a courtroom and will be asked a series of questions.

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To make sure whether you're able to serve in that case or you're disqualified, because perhaps you know the lawyers or the parties or something about the case., if you're able to serve and are selected,, then you're assigned to that courtroom. And that judge until that case, ends.

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Okay, and skipping ahead, you mentioned family law.

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Sometimes people choose to represent themselves..

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Is that a good idea and are there resources to help them?.

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I always think people are better served if they have an attorney.

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If you come and represent yourself, you're held to the same standards.

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Of proving and putting on evidence as a lawyer would be.

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In a courtroom and that's hard for a lay person., but it is expensive to hire lawyers.

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so,, I mean, in baltimore county, at the present time,.

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In over 60 percent of our family law cases, at least one party is representing themselves,.

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Which is a surprising number for most people.

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But when you look at child custody,, visitation, disputes, child support, issues,.

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People come to court routinely and can't afford to hire and bring a lawyer with them.

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We do have a self-help center in the building where it is staffed by people who can direct you to court resources.

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The maryland judiciary has a website that has all sorts of self-help materials.

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They have videos on how to represent yourself and what you should know if you're going to represent yourself.

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They have forms for people to use if they have to file a pleading.

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They actually have a call-in and self-help line. That's available.

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For people who are unable to get counsel.

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so,, if you can't hire someone to assist you,.

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I really urge you to come to the court and come to our self-help office.

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Or to look online at the judiciary's website.

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It's maryland--. If you, google, "maryland judiciary,",.

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You'll get a website that will direct you to a lot of self-help, materials.

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Okay, and just real quickly, talk about courthouse security and access,.

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Just in the little bit of time, we have left.

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We've actually looked hard at that recently, --, not because anything has happened that has caused us to --.

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But if you look nationally at incidents that have occurred,, it is important for us that people in the building be safe.

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So we have a single point of entry. Now.

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we scan everyone who comes in the building.

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okay. all right.

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Well, thank you so much for spending some time with us. thank you. and thank you for watching hello, baltimore, county.

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and remember,. You can connect with baltimore county government on facebook and twitter.. We'll see you next time. ( ♪♪♪ ).