For nearly eight years, Reno County District Court Administrative Judge Steve Becker pleaded his case with the Kansas Legislature for the addition of a magistrate judge to help ease the district's caseload.

In 2004, Becker's wish was granted, and by the beginning of this year, Joe McCarville was draped in a black robe, sitting as Reno County's first-ever magistrate judge.

Ten months after adding the judicial post, Becker says statistics from the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration show that more cases are moving through the courtrooms.

"Felony cases are definitely moving faster," Becker said. "Everything Joe is doing now, I was doing before."

McCarville's responsibilities typically include hearing first appearances, where he reviews why a suspect was arrested, determines if there was probable cause for the arrest and sets bond.

Additionally, the judge hears most of the protection from abuse and protection from stalking cases, small claims cases and misdemeanor traffic violations.

Although a magistrate judge isn't required to hold a law degree, McCarville meets the qualifications for a district court judge - he has legal training and has practiced law for more than five years.

Those qualifications have allowed Becker to expand McCarville's duties to include preliminary hearings for felony DUI cases and bench trials for misdemeanor charges.

Recently, District Attorney Keith Schroeder expressed frustration when the defense attorney for a man convicted of vehicular homicide hinted that he might appeal McCarville's ruling directly to the District Court - a provision known as de novo, which means a second time.

To avoid such an appeal, which would force the District Attorney to try the same case twice in the same county, Becker appointed McCarville a District Court pro tem specifically for the case.

Ron Keefover, education and information officer for the Kansas Judicial Branch, said he hadn't heard of other districts employing such a maneuver, but said it likely would be effective as long as the judge held the qualifications to be seated as a district judge.

"I would try to limit it," Becker said about using the procedure in the future. "I don't want to do it a lot, but I think it's a procedure that's available to avoid taking two bites from the same apple."

Keefover said a defendant always can appeal a decision from the magistrate judge directly to the District Court. According to courthouse records, defendants have appealed McCarville's rulings to the District Court six times in the past 10 months.

"It's just not happening that often," Becker said. "Especially when you look at how many misdemeanor cases he's handled."

Taking a gamble that those cases might be appealed is worth the risk, Becker said, because early numbers from the Office of Judicial Administration show that the magistrate post has been effective at speeding cases through court.

* Reno County ranked last in the state for criminal cases pending for more than a year, with 74 cases on the docket for more than 12 months.

* The District Court was second to last in the state for the median age of pending cases, with the average pending case sitting on the docket for 131 days, more than twice the state average of 71 days.

* Reno County was the worst in the state in median time for pending limited action cases and chapter 60 civil cases, and next to last in time for pending misdemeanors and domestic cases.

* Reno County was worst in the state with 37 civil cases pending more than two years and a median age of 226 days - nearly twice the state average.

* The county also had a case clearance rate of 91.17 percent, more than a full percentage point lower than the state average.

Becker returned from a two-day judicial conference last week with what he says is proof Reno County desperately needed the additional judge.

The OJA released numbers showing that despite a 2.3 percent increase in the number of civil and criminal cases filed in Reno County, the district outperformed similar-sized counties and made significant strides from 2004.

In fiscal 2004, which ran from July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004, terminated civil and criminal cases in Reno County District Court totaled 5,202. This year, with McCarville on the bench for half of the fiscal year, 6,279 cases made it through the courts - an increase of 20.7 percent.

No other county came close to matching those numbers, with 23 of the state's 31 districts reporting a drop in case productivity from the previous year.

Furthermore, pending cases in the county dropped by more than 28 percent. At the end of last fiscal year, 2,222 cases still were pending in Reno County. In 2005, that number dropped to 1,594 - the third highest percentage decline in pending cases in the state.

More detailed quarterly and yearly numbers from the OJA should be available in December, Keefover said.

"That's what was frustrating before. Parties would request a continuance, and the soonest I could reschedule it was six weeks out because my docket was filled," Becker said. "Now I can reschedule hearings in two to three weeks - I'm that caught up with my docket."

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