Dear residents of Carter County,

Upon an interesting read of last week’s Meet the Candidate article, I feel it is important to clarify a statement made by one of the candidates about the caseload in District Court here in Carter County as compared to Justice Court. While it was not an inaccurate statement, it could well be misconstrued. The term caseload is in reference to the number of filings per year which does not accurately reflect the workload. District Court is of greater jurisdiction and is the appellate court for Justice and City Courts. Its filings are both criminal and civil, the civil jurisdiction of a District Judge is very broad, the issues and parties more complex therefore, one case may have many hundreds or even thousands of documents filed within and may be in litigation for years. It rarely handles any cases that are simple open and shut cases. District Court’s exclusive jurisdiction of criminal matters is at the felony level, while it has concurrent jurisdiction over misdemeanors in some instances. It is a court of record, so all hearings must have minute entries and verbatim minutes maintained. The appeal process to the Supreme Court is burdensome and it is not out of the ordinary to have a case appealed, possibly more than once on different issues. These are facts that one who has never experienced the court system realizes. We have questions about the difference between the two courts and I hope this helps for a more thorough understanding. In all 56 counties of Montana, you would find that Justice Courts have a much greater “caseload” than District Courts. The comparison was an apples to oranges comparison.

Respectfully submitted.

Tracey Walker,

Ekalaka, MT