Court reorganization designed to ease overcrowding

Long lines and crowded elevators are part of the routine at Garrahy Judicial Complex in Providence. Court officials estimate more than 3,000 litigants a day pass through the doors of the building constructed in 1980 to accommodate 1,500 people daily. Starting next week though, visitors may find a little more elbowroom.
On Oct. 3, the court will start assigning nonfelony criminal and civil District Court cases from five northern Rhode Island communities now handled at Garrahy to the Gov. Philip W. Noel Judicial Complex in Warwick. In addition, North Kingstown cases will move to Noel from the McGrath Judicial Complex in South Kingstown.
“This is strictly an attempt to ease some crowding conditions in two of our courthouses,” courts spokesman Craig Berke said.
The General Assembly approved the reconfiguration earlier this year and Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee signed the legislation in June. The law moves cases from Glocester, Lincoln, North Providence, North Smithfield and Smithfield to Third Division District Court at the Noel courthouse. Remaining at Sixth Division District Court in Garrahy are cases from Barrington, Bristol, Burrillville, Central Falls, Cumberland, East Providence, Pawtucket, Providence, Warren and Woonsocket.
The shift came at the request of District Court Chief Judge Jeanne E. Lafazia, who has been seeking operational efficiencies since her appointment as chief judge in April 2010.
And there is little doubt District Court could use some efficiency. The court serves as the starting point for the vast majority of civil and criminal cases. Its judges hear everything from arrangements for petty larceny to disputes between major corporations. (Felony cases, such as murder, are arraigned in District Court but go to Superior Court for trial.)
The five northern communities being shifted to Warwick sent 1,750 criminal arraignments to the Garrahy courthouse alone last year. The courthouse in South Kingstown heard 385 last year. Pretrial court dates from the five northern municipalities totaled about 1,000; those from North Kingstown about 415.
In Providence, District Court also faces the challenge of jockeying for space alongside the state’s Workers’ Compensation Court and Family Court.
“You walk into that courthouse on a weekday at 8:30 in the morning and it’s a mob scene,” Berke said.
Meanwhile outside, lawyers and others compete for scarce parking spaces. With a 500-space parking garage and empty courtrooms, the Noel complex offers an appealing alternative. Inside, Berke said cases would be heard in an existing courtroom and there are no costs associated with reassigning the cases farther south. The courts will not close any courtrooms in Providence or South Kingstown and no staff will move. The only judge changing seats is Lafazia, who plans to personally hear the cases reassigned so she can judge the impact of the reconfiguration.
The shift has led the court system to drop long-proposed plans to construct a new courthouse in the Blackstone Valley area. But the court system is retaining the option to move even more cases to Noel. The courthouse, which opened in 2006, was built with space to add five extra courtrooms.
Not everyone is happy with the move. Providence-based Direct Action for Rights and Equality told the General Assembly that the Noel complex is harder to reach by public transportation. A reconfiguration, the group said, could unfairly burden the poor.
Berke said judges are sensitive to the group’s concerns. Lafazia’s handling of the cases, he said, is partly designed to ensure that everything goes smoothly.
And in other states, court visitors often must travel much farther than the distance between Providence and Warwick. Rhode Island Bar Association President William Delaney said when he lived in upstate New York, the judicial county was 90 miles wide.
Plus, Matt Plain, an associate lawyer at Taylor Duane Barton & Gilman, said that traffic and parking should be much easier due to the changes.
“What you lose in distance you make up for convenience,” he said.
Regardless of the parking, what happens inside the courtroom should change little. Steven Richard, a litigation attorney at Nixon Peabody, said location matters little for District Court cases.
But for major cases and appeals, location can matter in terms of jury selection.
So Lafazia struck a compromise. Superior Court trials will take place in their county of origin but arraignments will be handled in Warwick. Misdemeanor appeals from cases handled in Warwick will take place in Kent County Superior Court, unless one or both parties want the appeal to be heard in the original county of jurisdiction.
“I think the court has struck a fair balance,” Richard said. &#8226