HB65 Summary

• Establishes the Judicial Resources Allocation Commission as a permanent body composed of the Chief Justice (chair), Governor's legal advisor, Attorney General, three circuit judges, three district judges, and three licensed attorneys with staggered terms and diversity requirements.

• Commission shall annually review need for increasing or decreasing judgeships in district and circuit courts using criteria including Judicial Weighted Caseload Study, population, judicial duties, case accounting uniformity, and other relevant information, then provide ranked list to Governor and Legislature within 30 days.

• When a judgeship vacancy occurs due to death, retirement, resignation, removal, or judge becoming ineligible for reelection, Commission has 30 days to determine whether to reallocate it to another district or circuit by two-thirds vote, considering rankings but protecting the ten most-needy counties and circuits from losing judgeships.

• No judgeship reallocation may occur until three years of data is available after revising the Judicial Weighted Caseload Study by January 1, 2018, and no circuit may lose more than one judgeship in a two-year period.

• Commission meetings are subject to Alabama Open Meetings Act and Open Records Act, with proceedings open to public and certified records maintained by the Commission chair.