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The Arkansas Limited Jurisdiction Courts |
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Few Arkansans will ever enter the
doors of a circuit or chancery court and fewer still will find themselves in the Supreme
Court or Court of Appeals. It is fairly likely, however, that many Arkansans will, at some
point, come into contact with a limited jurisdiction court. For this reason, these courts
may be the most important part of our judicial system. Unfortunately, they are totally
funded by local and county governments and the amount of support given to any particular
court varies tremendously from one area of the state to the next. While the Arkansas
Constitution and statutes provide for six different types of courts of limited
jurisdiction, the most important are the municipal court and city court. Municipal courts
are served in most cases by part-time judges who are required to be attorneys and exercise
county-wide jurisdiction. In 1997-98, there were 126 municipal courts served by 110 judges
and 126 clerks. There are currently 110 city courts served by 81 judges which serve
communities which do not have a municipal court. These courts exercise city-wide
jurisdiction.
The caseload of municipal and city courts has grown tremendously in the last several
years, particularly since the civil jurisdiction of municipal courts was raised from $300
to $3,000 in 1987. That level was raised again to $5,000 by the 1997 General Assembly.
Municipal court filings totaled 995,316 in 1997-98, an increase from the 1996-97 level of
968,638. City court filings increased from 55,543 to 57,691 cases. These two courts also
generate a tremendous amount of revenue for local and county government and for several
special state programs. In 1997-98, $91,029,842 was assessed and $56,555,385 was collected
by these courts in fees, costs, and fines. |
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| The financial accounting and
disbursement procedures of these courts was impacted greatly by the passage of the Uniform
Cost and Fee Act of the 1995 General Assembly. The Act began a phase-in of the state
funding of the court system and simplified the disbursement process for court generated
funds. The Arkansas Municipal Judges Council is made up of all municipal court judges in
the state. The Council acts as the general body representing the state’s limited
jurisdiction courts. Formal business by the Council is conducted in the spring and fall
meetings each year. The 1997-98 President of the association was Judge Mark Lindsay. The
Arkansas Municipal and City Court Clerks Association also works to represent the interest
of limited jurisdiction court clerks. The body is also responsible for the certification
of these clerks. Their President in 1997-98 was Betty Whittaker. |
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