Huntingdon County is getting a second judge. Lawmakers say this will ease the excessive caseload on the county’s only judge and speed up the trial process.
George Zanic is Huntingdon County’s president judge and the county’s only Court of Common Pleas judge. State Sen. Judy Ward represents Huntingdon County. She sponsored legislation that passed last month, which will add another judge in Huntingdon and four other counties. Ward said the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts did a caseload study a few years ago for each county.
“It showed that Huntington County was very underserved in regards to judges. And unfortunately, the process to get an additional judge is that it needs to be done by legislation," Ward said.
Senate Bill 361 not only adds a new judge in Huntingdon County, but also adds one judge each to the Court of Common Pleas in Northumberland County, Chester County, a shared judge in Columbia and Montour counties, and Butler County.
Ward said Huntingdon is especially in need of help. She said Judge Zanic has had to rely on senior judges for help. Senior judges are semi-retired judges who help with cases throughout the state.
“And even with that, he's really struggling to keep up with the workload and the caseload there. Actually, the judges, you know, they're on call for search warrants or protection from abuse, PFA orders, those sorts of things. And he's been on call for 10 years with very little assistance," Ward said.
Ward said it’s uncommon for a county to only have one judge. She says it’s difficult for Judge Zanic to process cases in-between administrative work.
“He recently had a murder trial that he had to stop to do some other things. He had other administrative duties that he had to do. It takes time away from what he needs to be doing in his primary focus, maybe being in a court trial, or whatever it might be," Ward said.
Ward said a second judge will make the judicial system more efficient in Huntingdon County and allow for faster trials. She says the new judge should be appointed in February or March. That judge must be approved by the governor’s office and receive two-thirds consent from the state Senate.
