Judge Candidates See Technology In Court’s Future
October 15, 2020 at 3:18 a.m.
Judge Candidates See Technology In Court’s Future
By Amanda Bridgman-
Chamber President and CEO Rob Parker was the moderator, and each candidate was given a time limit to answer each question.
The judicial debate was between Republican Chad Miner and Democrat Antony Garza. The two are running to fill the Superior Court III seat that will be left open by Judge Joe Sutton as he retires after more than 30 years on the bench. Kosciusko Superior Court III handles both civil and criminal cases. The civil side of the docket largely deals with landlord-tenant disputes, while the criminal side handles mostly felony traffic violations like DUIs.
The topic of efficiency was a common thread throughout the 12-question debate Wednesday, with both candidates focusing on technologies available to help expedite cases and limit physical contact as the COVID-19 pandemic surges.
Garza introduced himself by saying he’s been practicing law for 23 years and currently practices civil and criminal law out of his Garza Law Office. Garza said he started his career in 1997 working in Fort Wayne handling low-income, landlord-tenant cases.
“My practice has given me the good opportunity and background to be judge in this court,” Garza said.
Miner focused on being a lifelong Kosciusko resident and his broad experience practicing law in both civil and criminal matters, along with serving as judge pro tem in Superior Court III many times.
“In addition to those areas, I also have served as the Kosciusko County attorney since 2014 and in that role, I’ve given advice and counsel to our county leaders,” Miner said, adding that he also serves on the Silver Lake Town Council.
Both men said their judicial philosophy is based on upholding people’s constitutional rights and giving everyone a fair opportunity to be heard. Both cited their work in civil and criminal cases as helping them see both sides of a situation.
Miner said he believes the use of technology may help move cases along, but he really thinks that Superior Court III is run pretty well.
“It’s important that, yeah, you want cases to proceed as rapidly as possible, but at the same time, you need to ensure that constitutional rights are being looked out for,” Miner said. “But, I think as with anything, you get a fresh set of eyes and find a way to improve.”
For Garza, using more of Zoom or other virtual meeting platforms for pretrial conferences or other hearings would make more sense.
“This court, since it handles in large part felony traffic, a lot of defendants in the court may not have transportation,” Garza said. “By using these alternative methods for getting them into court, that could reduce the number of delays.”
Garza also cited how Superior III’s docket is scheduled every 30 minutes, rather than how some other courts docket their cases in blocks and are met with a first-come, first-served basis. For example, a court may block out a time period for eight sentencings, then handle them all one at a time, and then have another block on the day’s schedule for initial hearings, and handle those all one at a time.
Both Miner and Garza said if elected they would first speak with the prosecutor’s office, defense lawyers and court staff about ways to make the court more efficient.
Garza talked about a new program proposed by the Indiana Supreme Court called the Landlord and Tenant Settlement Conference Program that provides a free avenue for landlords and tenants to reach a mutually beneficial resolution, especially in the face of the health pandemic that has resulted in a backlog of cases and evictions.
That shifted into a mediation topic, where both candidates seemed to agree that mediation can be good if used in the right way – and if the parties involved agree. Mediation doesn’t use the court’s time and resources while allowing the parties to come to a compromised agreement. However, mediation costs can be a problem, and for Garza, it’s using programs like that proposed by the Supreme Court that could help people decide if mediation could be useful for their specific case.
“Once the parties are involved in mediation we find that, one, you’re more likely to be happy with the results, and two, you’re more likely to comply,” Garza said.
For Miner, he believes mediation can help but sometimes certain cases are probably just better off to come to court and be decided on.
“You could end up with a situation where it may be just as easy to go to the small claims trial and try it and get an outcome and then you’re done,” Miner said. “Probably in a lot of situations that can be accomplished in a lot less time than what a mediation could.”
When it came to the topic of equal access to the justice system, Garza touched on the fact that Kosciusko courts offer a Spanish interpreter at least once a month in Superior Court III and has access to resources for other language barriers.
“That is the entire basis of our justice system, through accesss, whether that be through Zoom, Go To Meeting, teleconferencing, to ensure those who may not have reliable transportation get to court,”?Garza said. “The pandemic has showed us we can provide access to people without being physically present.”
“Ensuring fair treatment for all people that come into the courtroom, regardless of any characteristics that they may have is a foundational aspect of our judicial system and of our society, so clearly that’s a very important thing,” Miner said. “There are a couple of things that I think that the judge can do to ensure that happens and one is just simply being prepared ahead of time. ... Another important thing is that the judge has to require that the parties be respectful and courteous to the court and respectful and courteous to each other. In my experience filling in as judge pro tem in Superior Court III, they are.”
Looking to the future for Superior Court III, both candidates talked about how technology can move it forward.
“I think that those technologies are particularly helpful at this point in time. I think some of that was already planned but sped up based on the pandemic, so I think those are very helpful and other jurisdictions have used them so can they can do some of the initial hearings and some of that status conferences, what have you, so they don’t have to constantly bring folks up from the jail, and I think that’s a very good thing that we’re moving toward. I think that helps with safety in a variety of different perspectives,” Miner said. “The other thing that is certainly true is you do have attorneys that deal with cases in Superior III that don’t necessarily work around here,” he said, citing expenses that could add up from at attorney bill for the lawyer having to drive back and forth for a simple initial hearing. “So I would use this to kind of leverage, with the overall goal of being efficient and cost-effective.”
Garza echoed Miner’s sentiments about that, saying he recently had a case in Elkhart County where his client came to his Warsaw office and neither of them had to spend the two hours in drive time just to appear for something that could be settled over technology.
“I think technology will greatly improve access to the courts,” Garza said. “Jail staff spend so much time right now bringing prisoners up, there’s no risk of escape, of injury to the jail officers, so I think that would help significantly. ... On the civil side, rather than simply failing to appear, they can at least be given the opportunity to appear virtually.”
Miner said he believes the future of the court is migrating to a more electronic video conferencing format so he would try to implement that, with the overarching goals for him to be to make the court efficient and cost-effective.
“It’s the opportunity for people to come in and not spend a lot of money and ... where they feel like they can really get a problem taking care of,” Miner said. “So that is certainly something I would be trying to continually push toward.”
For Garza, he definitely sees the court using more of Zoom and the like to handle cases, but he also doesn’t want to see the court lose its humanity.
“I still belive in court running person to person. I think that’s important that they have access to the system, being heard by someone and not a computer monitor and yes, we get business done, but we don’t feel the same at the end of the meeting (while using technology versus in-person),” Garza said. “While I think that technology is useful, we still need to have open courts, people coming in, sitting in the gallery and listening.”
Chamber President and CEO Rob Parker was the moderator, and each candidate was given a time limit to answer each question.
The judicial debate was between Republican Chad Miner and Democrat Antony Garza. The two are running to fill the Superior Court III seat that will be left open by Judge Joe Sutton as he retires after more than 30 years on the bench. Kosciusko Superior Court III handles both civil and criminal cases. The civil side of the docket largely deals with landlord-tenant disputes, while the criminal side handles mostly felony traffic violations like DUIs.
The topic of efficiency was a common thread throughout the 12-question debate Wednesday, with both candidates focusing on technologies available to help expedite cases and limit physical contact as the COVID-19 pandemic surges.
Garza introduced himself by saying he’s been practicing law for 23 years and currently practices civil and criminal law out of his Garza Law Office. Garza said he started his career in 1997 working in Fort Wayne handling low-income, landlord-tenant cases.
“My practice has given me the good opportunity and background to be judge in this court,” Garza said.
Miner focused on being a lifelong Kosciusko resident and his broad experience practicing law in both civil and criminal matters, along with serving as judge pro tem in Superior Court III many times.
“In addition to those areas, I also have served as the Kosciusko County attorney since 2014 and in that role, I’ve given advice and counsel to our county leaders,” Miner said, adding that he also serves on the Silver Lake Town Council.
Both men said their judicial philosophy is based on upholding people’s constitutional rights and giving everyone a fair opportunity to be heard. Both cited their work in civil and criminal cases as helping them see both sides of a situation.
Miner said he believes the use of technology may help move cases along, but he really thinks that Superior Court III is run pretty well.
“It’s important that, yeah, you want cases to proceed as rapidly as possible, but at the same time, you need to ensure that constitutional rights are being looked out for,” Miner said. “But, I think as with anything, you get a fresh set of eyes and find a way to improve.”
For Garza, using more of Zoom or other virtual meeting platforms for pretrial conferences or other hearings would make more sense.
“This court, since it handles in large part felony traffic, a lot of defendants in the court may not have transportation,” Garza said. “By using these alternative methods for getting them into court, that could reduce the number of delays.”
Garza also cited how Superior III’s docket is scheduled every 30 minutes, rather than how some other courts docket their cases in blocks and are met with a first-come, first-served basis. For example, a court may block out a time period for eight sentencings, then handle them all one at a time, and then have another block on the day’s schedule for initial hearings, and handle those all one at a time.
Both Miner and Garza said if elected they would first speak with the prosecutor’s office, defense lawyers and court staff about ways to make the court more efficient.
Garza talked about a new program proposed by the Indiana Supreme Court called the Landlord and Tenant Settlement Conference Program that provides a free avenue for landlords and tenants to reach a mutually beneficial resolution, especially in the face of the health pandemic that has resulted in a backlog of cases and evictions.
That shifted into a mediation topic, where both candidates seemed to agree that mediation can be good if used in the right way – and if the parties involved agree. Mediation doesn’t use the court’s time and resources while allowing the parties to come to a compromised agreement. However, mediation costs can be a problem, and for Garza, it’s using programs like that proposed by the Supreme Court that could help people decide if mediation could be useful for their specific case.
“Once the parties are involved in mediation we find that, one, you’re more likely to be happy with the results, and two, you’re more likely to comply,” Garza said.
For Miner, he believes mediation can help but sometimes certain cases are probably just better off to come to court and be decided on.
“You could end up with a situation where it may be just as easy to go to the small claims trial and try it and get an outcome and then you’re done,” Miner said. “Probably in a lot of situations that can be accomplished in a lot less time than what a mediation could.”
When it came to the topic of equal access to the justice system, Garza touched on the fact that Kosciusko courts offer a Spanish interpreter at least once a month in Superior Court III and has access to resources for other language barriers.
“That is the entire basis of our justice system, through accesss, whether that be through Zoom, Go To Meeting, teleconferencing, to ensure those who may not have reliable transportation get to court,”?Garza said. “The pandemic has showed us we can provide access to people without being physically present.”
“Ensuring fair treatment for all people that come into the courtroom, regardless of any characteristics that they may have is a foundational aspect of our judicial system and of our society, so clearly that’s a very important thing,” Miner said. “There are a couple of things that I think that the judge can do to ensure that happens and one is just simply being prepared ahead of time. ... Another important thing is that the judge has to require that the parties be respectful and courteous to the court and respectful and courteous to each other. In my experience filling in as judge pro tem in Superior Court III, they are.”
Looking to the future for Superior Court III, both candidates talked about how technology can move it forward.
“I think that those technologies are particularly helpful at this point in time. I think some of that was already planned but sped up based on the pandemic, so I think those are very helpful and other jurisdictions have used them so can they can do some of the initial hearings and some of that status conferences, what have you, so they don’t have to constantly bring folks up from the jail, and I think that’s a very good thing that we’re moving toward. I think that helps with safety in a variety of different perspectives,” Miner said. “The other thing that is certainly true is you do have attorneys that deal with cases in Superior III that don’t necessarily work around here,” he said, citing expenses that could add up from at attorney bill for the lawyer having to drive back and forth for a simple initial hearing. “So I would use this to kind of leverage, with the overall goal of being efficient and cost-effective.”
Garza echoed Miner’s sentiments about that, saying he recently had a case in Elkhart County where his client came to his Warsaw office and neither of them had to spend the two hours in drive time just to appear for something that could be settled over technology.
“I think technology will greatly improve access to the courts,” Garza said. “Jail staff spend so much time right now bringing prisoners up, there’s no risk of escape, of injury to the jail officers, so I think that would help significantly. ... On the civil side, rather than simply failing to appear, they can at least be given the opportunity to appear virtually.”
Miner said he believes the future of the court is migrating to a more electronic video conferencing format so he would try to implement that, with the overarching goals for him to be to make the court efficient and cost-effective.
“It’s the opportunity for people to come in and not spend a lot of money and ... where they feel like they can really get a problem taking care of,” Miner said. “So that is certainly something I would be trying to continually push toward.”
For Garza, he definitely sees the court using more of Zoom and the like to handle cases, but he also doesn’t want to see the court lose its humanity.
“I still belive in court running person to person. I think that’s important that they have access to the system, being heard by someone and not a computer monitor and yes, we get business done, but we don’t feel the same at the end of the meeting (while using technology versus in-person),” Garza said. “While I think that technology is useful, we still need to have open courts, people coming in, sitting in the gallery and listening.”
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