Since the economy muscled its way out of the Great Recession, many states are finding budget surpluses.  This includes my state of Minnesota.  Of course, everyone has descended on the legislature asking for some of the money.  Of all the places to spend, I recommend funds for the court system.  I’m biased because I work as a lawyer in the court system, but I will try to give you an objective viewpoint.

1.  Salaries and benefits.  Contrary to what the media may lead you to believe about government salaries and benefits, they tend to be lower than many similar jobs in private industry.  Salaries, until recently, had been frozen for almost five years—understandable during the Great Recession.  But now they need to rise to meet increased living costs.

Why should we spend public dollars like this?  If we want to continue attracting the best judges, lawyers, probation officers, and deputies, we need to offer pay that is attractive.  The judicial branch of government handles thousands of legal disputes (civil and criminal) every month.  If you attract the most qualified employees, they will not only be able to handle the volume but assure each of us as citizens that fair justice is achieved.

2.  Technology.  As an example, a couple years ago my court system set a goal to become completely paperless.  Think about this: of the thousands of law suits and criminal charges filed each month, each one of them probably used anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen pieces of paper.  Multiply that by twelve months and I guess that would be millions of papers clogging-up the court system.  The technology to accomplish the goal is expensive and training people to use it costs money.  I think we can all agree that goal is worth it—but it requires adequate funding.

3.  Delays.  How many times have you heard about the length of time it take when you get caught-up in the court system?  Everyone has a horror story.  It’s based on a simple equation:  the number of cases + the number of people to process cases = efficiency of the court system.  In my own experience, the court system has been under-staffed for more than ten years.  A few extra judges, prosecutors, Public Defenders, and clerks would work amazing wonders to speed-up the functioning of the court system.

No one likes to spend more money on government.  But the court system touches so many of us “close to home.”  This is a good thing to add more public money to!