Judges reassigned under jurisdiction plan

By SHERI McWHIRTER
smcwhirter@record-eagle.com

July 18, 2008 12:00 am

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GAYLORD -- Three northern Michigan counties now have five chief judges.

The Michigan Supreme Court ordered a chief judge to be put in charge of the 87th District Court in Otsego, Crawford and Kalkaska counties, as well as a chief judge to head up the 46th Circuit Court in the same three counties.

Also, each of the counties has a chief probate judge.

It's a way to bring the hierarchy of judges in line with the daily operations of the court since the three counties broke apart their shared court system in October 2006, said Rudi Edel, court administrator in Otsego County.

It's now a constitutional court system rather than the former shared court system, he said.

"That's how we've been operating for a couple of years," Edel said.

A new concurrent jurisdiction plan was sent to the state Supreme Court for consideration and the approval order was issued this month.

Judge Patricia Morse was named chief judge of the district court, while Judge Janet Allen is the chief judge of the circuit court.

The three new chief probate judges include Judge Michael Cooper in Otsego County, Judge Monte Burmeister in Crawford County and Judge Lynne Buday in Kalkaska County.

All of their terms end Jan. 1, 2010.

The new assignments will not affect the way the courts operate in the three counties, Allen said.

"What I'm going to strive for in Circuit Court is maintaining consistent policies and procedures in all three counties," she said.

The counties each pay for their own courts following a 2006 decision to break apart a jointly funded system after more than five years. A lengthy legal battle between the court and counties that cost $2.4 million preceded the separation.

The suit stemmed from what amounted to about $32,000 in increased court employee benefits, which Crawford and Kalkaska counties did not want to pay.

Now the new concurrent jurisdiction plan addresses how cases are assigned among the courts, a reflection of the way they operated for the last two years, Edel said.

Morse handles all district cases in Otsego County, while Cooper takes all probate and family cases. Meanwhile, Burmeister and Buday take all district, probate and family cases in Crawford and Kalkaska counties, respectively.

Allen and Judge Dennis Murphy handle circuit cases in all three counties, Edel said.