Chuck Grassley: “Mr. President, my subcommittee has been looking at the need for increased or decreased numbers of judges across the…”

“Mr. President, my subcommittee has been looking at the need for increased or decreased numbers of judges across the country. I've been looking at the middle district of Florida for some time, and have corresponded and met with the chief judge. At this time, I am still not clear on what the needs of the district are or how its caseload is being managed. For instance, how are the many senior judges in the district helping with the caseload? I asked the chief judge this, and all I got were the judges certification papers that didn't say much of anything about caseload. It mostly mentioned what conferences they attended. I would ask the proponents to explain to us how the senior judges and magistrates help in reducing the caseload? Do the proponents realize that the senior judges in the middle district don't even take full cases? Nevertheless, I will continue working with my colleagues regarding judgeship needs. I will soon be releasing a subcommittee report on our efforts to review the circuit courts. The bottom line I've been advocating is that if we increase judges, we need to also decrease judges where they're not needed.”