Cases, judges reshuffle as city, state courts merge

Legislators voted last year to combine the Detroit courts, citing money savings and streamlined justice.

The state Supreme Court has given judges assignments in criminal, civil, family or juvenile cases, forcing judges to take on some new roles.

"We are all concerned because our primary goal is service to the public," said Wayne Circuit Judge Arthur Lombard, who is giving up his criminal and civil cases for a docket involving only family issues. "We want to make sure everybody has their litigation handled with fairness and speed."

Criminal judges will hear cases in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice. Civil and family law judges will hear cases in the City-County Building. Judges will hear cases involving juveniles in the James Lincoln Hall of Juvenile Justice.

But some question whether the merger will decrease the number of black judges. Judges will have to be elected by majority-white Wayne County.

The NAACP of Detroit has filed suit in federal court in an attempt to block the move.

"If a law is not constitutional it cannot stand,'' Melissa El, lead attorney for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, told The Detroit News for a story today. "The merger can be dismantled."

Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Sapala, who is overseeing the merger as executive chief judge, said the change is complex and challenging.

"I have no sense of power at all," he told the Detroit Free Press. "I am just so enmeshed in details. And the devil is in the details. ... No court in the history of this country has been forced to undergo these changes."

Sapala said the new court will have a cultural diversity that it previously lacked.

"We will have one of the few absolutely integrated benches in the nation," he told the News. "You have the mix that reflects the community and that is good for this community."

Many of the judges initially resented the merger, including Sapala himself, but they have risen above the bickering.

"All of that is kind of behind us and more or less ancient history," he said. "Everybody is accepting their assignments. The professional here is extraordinary."

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