CASPER, Wyo. — Wyoming Chief Justice Kate Fox told the legislature during her “State of the Judiciary” message on Monday, Feb. 14 that the judicial branch is struggling to retain staff and that the primary reason for this is pay.
Fox said that Wyoming has 24 circuit judges, 24 district court judges and five Supreme Court justices along with several magistrates, and that the judicial branch employs about 265 people to support the work of the judges.
“They work incredibly hard and I must tell you we are struggling to retain our good people,” Fox said. “There are a number of reasons for that, but chief among them is that they are underpaid.”
Fox pointed specifically to difficulty retaining circuit court clerks, which she described as the “workhorses of the judicial branch.” The roughly 120 circuit court clerks work in the “highest volume courts where small claims and misdemeanors are filed — often by people who are not represented by lawyers,” according to Fox.
“Clerks are there to help your constituents, the citizens of Wyoming, and to support the work of the judges so the people’s legal matters can be addressed [in a timely manner],” Fox told the legislature. “That breaks down when we can’t keep our good people and we can’t keep them because they can make more money at McDonald’s or even in the same building, working for the county.”
Fox said there has also been difficulty retaining the small administrative staff team in the judicial branch that help maintain courts’ Information Technology systems and who are critical as the state works to modernize the court system. She said that the judicial branch has struggled retaining such staff as they move into jobs in the private sector.
“We must pay our people a fair wage if the courts are to continue to perform our constitutional functions,” Fox said. “That is to provide the just, speedy and inexpensive resolution of our citizens’…