City of Auburn | Judicial

Judicial

James McLaughlin
Municipal Judge
Employees: 7 www.auburnalabama.org/ju webjudicial@auburnalabama.org

Responsibilities

The City Council appoints the Municipal Judge and the City Manager appoints the Court Administrator.

James McLaughlin serves as both in his role as Municipal Judge. Judge Joe Bailey, who retired as Municipal Judge in 2010, continues to serve part- time as an Associate Municipal Judge.

The Municipal Judge supervises five Clerk/magistrates and is responsible for administering the municipal court system.

The Municipal Court meets on Thursday of each week and is open to the public.

Background

Many years ago, most municipal courts, including Auburn's, were administered by the local police department. This was changed across the nation by a federal court ruling that municipal courts must be separate and distinct from municipal police departments. Subsequently, the Judicial Department now operates independently of Police.

The Judicial Department has the following employees: a judge/administrator, an assistant administrator/clerk, an administrative assistant, and four magistrates. In addition, there are part-time contractual assistants, including a Court Referral Officer and a Spanish interpreter.

Cases

The majority of the court's work involves the processing of arrest warrants, traffic citations and parking tickets. In addition to the court cases itemized below, Judicial has processed 7,827 parking tickets this year. Since 2006, the Court has processed 75,651 parking tickets. While there were 451 DUI cases filed in 2010, some of the 500 DUI cases disposed of in 2010 were actually filed in 2009.

Breakdown of FY 2010 Court Cases
	DUI	Other Traffic	Sub-Total	Non-Traffic	Grand Total
Filed	451	19,919	20,370	2,964	23,334
Disposed	500	19,034	19,534	2,816	22,350
Appealed	6	24	30	54	84
Total Fiscal Year 2009 Cases 20,214			Total Fiscal Year 2010 Cases 23,334
Between FY 2009 and FY 2010, the number of court cases increased 15%

Programs

For several years, the Court has offered a deferral program for those charged with domestic violence. These defendants attend a counseling program once a week for six months. Upon satisfactory completion of the course, the case is continued for 18 months. If there are no other incidents within this time, the charge is dismissed. This year, Judicial implemented a court referral program known as Shoplifting-Theft-Alternative-Response-Training (START) using the LifeCare Counseling Center, Inc. The program helps men and women live out responsible lives by encouraging healthy decision making and ending all forms of stealing.