In the Matter of Assignment of Courtrooms, Judge's Offices, and Other Court Facilities of the St. Joseph Superior Court

I. Procedural background

Indiana Trial Rule 60.5 establishes procedures to resolve intra-county disputes about the funding for court operations. These procedures are infrequently invoked in Indiana. In this case, however, the extraordinary procedures of Trial Rule 60.5 have been employed to settle a rather ordinary dispute over which judge uses a particular office in the St. Joseph County Courthouse. 1

In short, the Board of Commissioners of St. Joseph County (“Commissioners”) want to relocate the magistrate of the Circuit Court to a particular room of the County Courthouse; the presiding judge…