LAKE COUNTY - Lake County may be getting a new magistrate judge.
The "Times" reports an Indiana legislative panel is set to decide next week.
Judge Aleksandra Dimitrijevic made her case to the Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary for the need for another judge in Lake County Court Division 4.
Dimitrijevic has a heavily increased workload, which she pointed-out to the committee saying that the judicial workload in her court already increased 40% from 2016 to 2019.
She then picked up an extra 8,300 cases after Hammond and Whiting closed their city courts and transferred those cases to her county courtroom that's also located in Hammond.
The Interim Study Committee on Courts and the Judiciary's support is required before the General Assembly will consider approving a new, state-paid magistrate position.
Dimitrijevic told the study committee that Lake County Division 4 is the only court in its division that never had a magistrate.
