Court officials and attorneys say mandated cuts to the state judicial budget are making the wheels of justice move slower than usual.

Specifically, $2 million that was cut for the payment of senior judges has created more work for sitting judges who already were grappling with growing caseloads and backlogs on the civil and criminal sides.

The result, officials say, is that some folks aren’t getting their day in court in a timely fashion, particularly in civil disputes.

Senior judges are Superior Court judges who have retired from daily work but who sit in on the bench as visiting judges when active judges must recuse themselves from cases over conflicts of interest. Senior judges also have presided over relatively simple, quick matters such as guilty pleas, uncontested divorces and family violence hearings.

In September, the Council of Superior Court Judges reluctantly cut money for senior judges when faced with a state mandate to reduce its budget by 6 percent.

Now the loss of those 70 judges is beginning to show some effects on the system, said David Barrett, the chief Superior Court judge for the Enotah Judicial Circuit, which includes White and Lumpkin counties.

In just the past eight months, Barrett has been assigned to hear recusal cases outside his circuit in Forsyth, Gwinnett, Fannin and Habersham counties that normally would have been handled by senior judges. Some of the cases could take weeks to resolve. All fall outside of his regular duties.

"The main thing it does is it slows down the administration of justice, both in the circuit where the active judge is participating, as well as the county where the judge has been assigned," Barrett said.

Barrett said some cases inevitably will be pushed to the back burner in the shuffle, where "they just sit there and curdle like milk. They don’t turn into fine wine."

"The loss of the senior judge has hurt us in a lot of ways," Barrett said "They provided quick access to justice and also economical justice."

Senior judges earned a per diem of about $500 a day, while the cost of a sitting Superior Court judge, including support staff and office expenses, is $380,000 a year.

Steve Ferrell, the court administrator for Georgia’s Ninth Judicial Administrative District, said about 100 cases have been assigned to the district’s 27 Superior Court judges from counties outside their circuits since funding for senior judges was eliminated. He calls it "have gavel, will travel."

Only about a quarter of those cases have been resolved, he said.

Judges are feeling the strain under the increased caseloads, Ferrell said.

"It’s like any profession — everybody can pitch in, and during a crisis people can do incredible things," Ferrell said. "But I don’t know how long they can sustain this effort without some issues of due process and backlogs of some cases."

Hall County Superior Court Judge Kathlene Gosselin, a member of the Council of Superior Court Judges, said the loss of senior judges has affected different circuits in different ways. All judges must prioritize what cases get heard first, she said. In some circuits, criminal matters are taking precedence over domestic relations cases and civil lawsuits.

"It has really slowed down work for all kinds of cases," she said.

Domestic cases in Hall County that used to be heard within 30 to 40 days are being scheduled "much further out now," Gosselin said.

Hall County, with four active Superior Court judges, already had a caseload that qualified the county for a fifth judge.

"When we were able to use a senior judge, we didn’t feel the effects as much, nor did the people in the community, because we were able to get the cases heard sooner," Gosselin said.

Hall County Magistrate Court judges Margaret Gregory and David Burroughs are able to sit in on the Superior Court bench to help out with some of the caseload, and the county still uses the services of Senior Judge John Girardeau on occasion. But the Hall County government, not the state, is paying Girardeau on a limited basis. Hall County already foots the lion’s share of the bill for the county’s judicial operations.

"It puts the burden back on the counties to pick up things the state budget should be handling," Gosselin said. "The county already supports us in so many ways."

Gosselin pointed out that the state judicial budget represents less than 1 percent of Georgia’s entire budget.

"My hope is that priorities will be seen, that it will be seen that this is a necessary, essential service to people’s everyday lives," Gosselin said.

Chris Schrimpf, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, said budget cuts were not made "across the board" to all agencies.

"Education, Medicaid and public safety were cut less than others," Schrimpf said.

Schrimpf said the governor’s office did not ask the judiciary to cut out senior judges.

"We asked the judiciary to cut a certain amount and that was what the judiciary decided to cut," he said.

Council members have said after cutting travel and equipment costs, all that was left was personnel. Close to 90 percent of the judiciary budget is salaries for judges and support staff.

Gainesville attorney Wyc Orr said the cuts are "truly a case of a penny wise and a pound foolish."

"Regardless of whatever savings the state may realize, the costs are huge," Orr said.

The loss of senior judges "undoubtedly stretches everything out, slows things down, causes delays in trials and hearings and other court business, and it impacts everybody," Orr said. "The amount of money that is saved just pales alongside the burdens and the costs that it imposes."

Gosselin said the state legislature added $400,000 back into this year’s budget for senior judges at the request of the Council of Superior Court Judges, but the council is not spending that money as it braces for more mandated cuts in coming months. More state budget adjustments are likely as Georgia tax revenues continue to decline.

Schrimpf, the governor’s spokesman, said, "moving forward, the governor always has the authority to request different size cuts for different agencies. When the General Assembly reconvenes, it will have the opportunity to tweak the budget, and in the meantime, the governor is able to selectively choose where to ask for more cuts and where not to."