The chairman of the state Senate Judiciary Committee is working on legislation to shift some Alabama judgeships to areas with heavy caseloads and backlogs in the court system.
Republican Sen. Cam Ward of Alabaster said Friday he will offer his bill when the Legislature convenes Feb. 5. It would set up a system to shift judicial positions when a circuit judge retires in a county with a low caseload.
Judges are assigned to 41 judicial circuits in Alabama. They can cover from one to five counties. Ward says the judicial assignments were made 40 years ago, but Alabama's population has shifted since then. He says a judge in Blount County serves 28,661 people, while a judge in Greene, Marengo and Sumter counties serves 10,959 people.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.