Robert Bishop Running For Superior Court III Judge
Robert Bishop Running For Superior Court III Judge
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Robert Bishop Running For Superior Court III JudgeA second person officially announced and filed for judge of Kosciusko Superior Court III.
Robert J. Bishop filed his candidacy Wednesday to be a Republican candidate for judge of Kosciusko. Chad Miner announced his candidacy Tuesday.
In a news release, Bishop said, “A judicial candidate should excel in both experience and leadership.”
Bishop passed the bar in 1991. He was in the private practice of law in Allen County until 2006 where he handled many types of cases including public defender work in criminal and family courts. In 2006, he was hired to be the section chief of the Kosciusko County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Child Support Division, where he remains today.
The Kosciusko County Child Support Division is “an award-winning county office that has outperformed the national and state averages for child support performance for many years,” the release states.
Since moving to Warsaw, Rob and his wife, Lois, have raised their two children who attend Warsaw Community High School. Rob, Lois and the family, attend Warsaw Community Church.
Bishop has been a member of the Wayne Township Advisory Board, having first won a caucus and then through election. He is the immediate past president of the Warsaw Breakfast Optimists. He has been a Republican precinct committeeperson in both Allen and Kosciusko Counties and serves as a vice-committeeperson.
Bishop is an avid cyclist and is a current member of the board of Kosciusko County Velo (KCV), the cycling club that maintains the Winona Lake Trails. The Club also operates the Fat and Skinny Tire Fest.
Giving back to the community by way of time and talent is important to Bishop, the release states.
He is a leader in the legal community where he is vice president of the Kosciusko County Bar Association. Bishop has served as an attorney member of the Indiana Legislature’s Child Custody and Support Advisory Committee. He has been invited to speak at numerous conferences including Indiana’s annual child support training conference, at the trainings held every four years for newly-elected Prosecuting Attorneys and at national child support conferences.
“While every attorney is required to complete continuing legal education, leaders teach the classes,” he said.
Trial experience is crucial to a judicial candidate. So much so that the state applications to fill a judicial vacancy require the candidate to list their major trial experience.
Superior Court III handles various felonies including OWI cases. When felony cases go to trial, they are almost always jury trials.
The release states, “Simply put, any candidate for Superior Court III should have previously tried multiple jury trials. Mr. Bishop, through his 28 years of legal experience, has tried jury trials both as a public defender and as a prosecutor. He has also handled multiple day civil bench trials. In his role as a deputy prosecutor, Mr. Bishop is in court every week handling cases for the citizens of the county. Mr. Bishop’s experience leaves him well prepared to run a courtroom as the judge.”
Superior Court III also manages the Kosciusko County small claims court. This court operates under simplified trial rules and has a limit on the amount of damages that may be sought. Many small claims cases are handled without the parties having attorneys. In this way it is very much like the participants in many of the child support cases who simply can not afford an attorney.
The vast majority of the 3,100 cases in the child Support Division do not have attorneys. Process and procedures can make court cases easier for participants. For example, to avoid the inconvenience of having people come to the courthouse, the child support division uses an e-signature program to facilitate the signing of documents, according to the release.
It concludes, “This election should be about leadership and experience, the hallmarks of a Judge. Mr. Bishop has the leadership and experience to lead Superior Court III and asks for your vote.”
