Courts Need More Space; Security An Issue
Published: April 18th, 2012
By: Melissa deCordova

Courts need more space; security an issue

NORWICH – Despite two years of renovations and office switches to accommodate the New York’s Sixth Judicial District Court, administrators say more space in the Chenango County Office Building is needed to handle what they say is a “staggering” number of cases in the county, family and surrogate courts.

Last year, there were nearly 4,500 family court matters decided, 3,706 juvenile delinquent probation cases, 145 criminal cases and 619 circuit court cases. The number of juvenile delinquent cases jumped one third from 2008 to 2011.

“I’ve got to tell you, the community uses the court system here. If you look at the numbers, they are staggering,” said Hon. Robert C. Mulvey, administrative judge of the Sixth Judicial District.

Judge Mulvey and his staff asked a committee of county lawmakers Tuesday for a timeline and commitment for granting additional square footage for courtroom space, meeting rooms and lawyers’ and judges’ chambers. They said they would check back with the county in about three months to gauge progress.

“We need additional courtroom space to schedule more cases and move cases along. It will benefit people in Chenango County to have cases heard a little quicker than they have in the past,” he said.

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