HB1225 Summary

• Repeals Arkansas Code § 16-17-1113(g) concerning the Fifteenth Judicial District effective December 31, 2024.

• Reorganizes the Fifteenth Judicial District to consist of Jackson County only (reduced from Jackson and Woodruff counties) with four departments located in Newport, Diaz, Swifton, and Tuckerman, effective January 1, 2025.

• Reorganizes the Sixteenth Judicial District to consist of Monroe and Arkansas counties with four departments located in Stuttgart, De Witt, Gillett, and St. Charles (reduced from seven departments).

• Creates a new Forty-Second Judicial District composed of Monroe and Woodruff counties with seven departments located in Brinkley, Clarendon, Holly Grove, Augusta, Cotton Plant, McCrory, and Patterson.

• Establishes that local district courts are reorganized as state district courts effective January 1, 2025, with new judges elected in the 2024 nonpartisan judicial election and cost-sharing requirements applied to affected cities and counties.