Be a Judge – the perfect part-time job

Posted By on May 9, 2006

Here’s a local story (southwest Ohio) produced by an investigative journalist and local television news station that got my dander up. It is probably something that is repeated across America and deserves some attention.
Butler County Part-time JudgesCounties often have part-time judges to ease the load on the courts and in some areas this might save taxpayers a significant number of dollars. Unfortunately it looks as if part-time judges, at least in my county, are paid very well for sitting on the bench one day per week and aren’t necessarily saving the county any money. Not only do they receive an annual compensation package over $70K, they are practicing lawyers the balance of the week. (that’s a pretty sweet deal) Nevertheless counties often see this as a necessary evil … but in our case we’ve hired not only one, but three! They’re all paid well and even receive taxpayer funded continuing education that seems to benefit their private law practice more than the work they do for the county. (besides … the 4 plus grand per year for these trips to Las Vegas seems like abuse of my tax dollars)

At least in Butler County Ohio this was brought to the forefront by Laure Quinlivan at WCPO and has our elected county officials quickly looking into the matter. I’m hoping that responsible fiscal management can address this in my backyard, but wonder how many other counties around the state and country have similar situations?

Cincinnati’s Channel 9 reports on Judges


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