Another consolidation of courts West River?

South Dakota’s court system intends to merge the Fourth and Seventh judicial circuits, creating one that will cover nearly a third of the state’s land area.

The Fourth Judicial Circuit encompasses the northwestern quarter of the state, including Butte, Corson, Dewey, Harding, Lawrence, Meade, Perkins and Ziebach counties. The Seventh Judicial Circuit includes the southwestern corner: Custer, Fall River, Oglala Lakota and Pennington counties.

The merged circuit would have the largest population and geographic footprint of any in the state, and the second-largest caseload.

The merger of the Fourth and Seventh circuits would “increase operational efficiencies” within the system, according to a news release from the Unified Judicial System.

The merger would result in one presiding judge, one chief court services officer and one deputy chief court services officer for the combined circuit, said court system spokeswoman Alisa Bousa. Each county would retain its own clerk of court.

If approved by the state Supreme Court, it would be the third circuit consolidation since the system was implemented more than 50 years ago. At least one state’s attorney in northwestern South Dakota worries the consolidation will hurt access to justice for rural residents.

“The way circuits are set up right now makes sure rural counties are always properly served with the right amount of resources so we can do what we need to do,” said Shane Penfield, state’s attorney for Perkins, Dewey, Ziebach and Corson counties. “I think there could be some potential pitfalls with a circuit that large in geographic size.”

The system has not yet presented a formal rule proposal to the state Supreme Court, State Court Administrator Greg Sattizahn said in an email. Sattizahn declined an interview request. He said the system is “focusing on providing information to the public” through in-person forums planned for Aug. 26:
8:30 a.m. at the Pennington County Courthouse in Rapid City.
11 a.m. at the Meade County Courthouse in Sturgis.
3:30 p.m. at the Lonesome Dove Conference Center in Lemmon.

History of consolidation
The Unified Judicial System consists of the Supreme Court and seven circuits, each of which includes more than one county.

The term “unified” stems from the system’s setup, in which the state serves as the administrative overseer while counties manage and fund many day to day operations.

Prosecutors and public defenders are paid for by counties; judges, court services officers and clerks of court are paid by the state.

The system was established by constitutional amendment in 1972, originally with nine circuit courts and 37 judges. The Supreme Court reduced that number of circuits to eight in 1976 and to seven in 2000, after an internal report recommended equalizing court costs and workloads to balance declining rural populations with growing urban areas, according to Rapid City Journal reporting at the time.