Legal Eagles Praise Court Streamlining

After passing in the general election of November 2000, Amendment 80 set out to dissolve the chancery courts throughout Arkansas. It’s a step all but two other states have taken to streamline their court systems.

Arkansas was the only remaining state with a strict division of law and equity in trial courts of general jurisdiction, according to the Arkansas Bar Association.

Passing with an approval vote of 57 percent, lawyers, attorneys and judges all say the amendment has successfully merged the circuit and chancery courts. Rick Woods, a partner at Rose & Woods in Fayetteville, said he thinks the dissolution has helped things immensely.

“It’s helped as far as efficiency,” Woods said. “I think the juvenile court remains crowded, but it was like that before. Judge [Stacey] Zimmerman is the only one doing it. She’s very experienced, but there’s so many of them.

“It’s hard to handle, but she does a very good job.”

Shawn Daniels, a partner in Kincaid, Horne & Daniels of Fayetteville, said before the dissolution, cases were divided into separate courts — including civil, equitable and criminal. Each court had a specific judge. Now, when lawyers file cases, they are not certain which judge will try the case.

While judges still try cases within their areas of experience, they are having to branch out and adapt to new kinds of cases. Daniels said that while lawyers will have to get used to having random judges for their cases, the change is a good one.

“It’s strictly a good thing,” Daniels said. “There’s a little adjustment now, but it’s good in the long run. We’ve gotten in line with the rest of the country. We were one of the last states to have the chancery courts distinction.”

The change in the system came as a result of a much-needed overhaul of the 1874 state constitution, said State Sen. David Malone, D-Fayetteville.

“The 1874 constitution had a lot of provisions that needed to be revisited,” Malone said.

The Arkansas Bar Association proposed a complete revision of the 1874 article and worked for many years to redraft the part that dealt with the courts.

“It is a product of people who work with the courts on a daily basis and who believed we needed a new and more modern article,” Malone said.

Circuit Judge Mary Ann Gunn said the change has been good for judges, too.

“There’s more continuity, and it flows better,” Gunn said. “Now that we’re all circuit judges, it also streamlines the whole system for attorney pleadings.”

Gunn said the new system gives cases a better chance of being heard. Many cases used to get dismissed because they were filed incorrectly.

“Before this efficiency, the party might file in chancery court when they should have filed in circuit court,” Gunn said.

“Then it would be dismissed and have to be re-filed. Now judges can hear all cases, and we don’t have to deal with all of that.”

Gunn also said she thinks the new system is a welcome one in the state, with the judicial council and most bars throughout Arkansas endorsing it. She said local lawyers were happy to see it as well.

Although the structure of the system changed, Gunn said the law did not.

“The substance of law didn’t change,” she said. “The body of law still exists. It just puts everybody under one tent.”