A new Judge; a new world

and he tells him so-o-o-o.

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

The Beatles

Circuit Court action in Carroll County is a new world these days. I have been covering the court under former Judge Alan Epley since 2000, and Judge Kent Crow is making changes that make me wonder.

I think it is great that he is, as he says, fast-tracking cases, setting trial dates at the time of arraignment. But I wonder how well that will play out in reality.

Of course, it is still early in Crow's tenure. I have witnessed him in action on the bench only twice as of Jan. 12, and the first time the court docket was so light, it was hard to get a feel for it.

The second time the docket was so heavy, he wasn't even half way through by noon. In fact, he was more like about one-quarter of the way through.

Crow's experience as a judge prior to being elected circuit judge has been in district court, which is much lower in profile -- traffic tickets, littering and the like. When you get to a burglary, assault, rape or attempted murder case, the stakes are higher, and the attorneys are more agressive.

I wonder if Judge Crow really recognizes the number of cases he will be hearing on a yearly basis. It will very likely exceed 200 this year, and judging from the way the economy seems to be stimulating criminal behavior, maybe more than 300.

To handle that number of cases in what is essentially a seven-hour day one day a week will be a challenge, yet Crow takes the time to explain to defendants what the legal jargon being bandied about means‚ something which I always assumed the defendants' attorneys explained privately. That takes three minutes here, or 10 minutes there, for what used to be a more brief and rather, shall I say, perfunctory process. Perhaps we will see criminal court routinely held on more than one day a week, on occassion at least.

Now don't get me wrong. I don't have anything against Judge Crow. In fact, looking at it from a defendant's point of view, I think he is doing a very good job of crossing the T's and dotting the I's.

Like I said, it's a new world, and it's going to take me some time to get used to it.