The public is invited to the inauguration of Robert Minor as district judge to St. Clair County District Court Place 2. The event will take place on Monday, January 19 at 11:00 a.m. in the large courtroom of the Pell City Courthouse.

Minor will be the first judge to be elected and seated in this position. The new district judgeship was created in 2007 for St. Clair County.

“I am unbelievably excited to be serving, especially the children of our county,” said Minor.

He said that he had attended a training session for new judges at which a speaker had made quite an impression on his view of the new position. “This young man had spent 17 years in the juvenile system. It reminded me of why I chose to serve. Every chance I get publicly I will push for helping kids in our county. His perspective reminded me that everything I do in my juvenile cases should be seen through the eyes of a child.”

Minor will hear his first case on January 26.

The road to the creation of the new position took a decade to realize and four tries in the legislature before it was approved.

As early as the late 1980s and early 1990s counties such as St. Clair and Shelby County saw an increase in caseloads for district judges.

Here in St. Clair County, with the population boom in the last decade, current district judge Phillip K. Seay saw his docket increase dramatically. As the 1990s went on, it soon became quite clear that a new judgeship would need to be created.

At that time, there were two judges serving St. Clair and Blount counties, respectively, with two circuit judges that travel between both counties.

In 1999, legislation was passed that created a new circuit judgeship with two judges for St. Clair and one for Blount County.

Soon thereafter, the district court judge saw his caseload increase and county judges attempted to get a new district judgeship approved.

On its fourth try, in spring of 2007, a bill sponsored by Representatives Jim McClendon and Dale Marsh with help from Senator Scott Beason and Representative Blane Gallagher, was passed in the legislature.

The Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb then did an evaluation of the caseload taken on by Judge Seay. At the time, he had the heaviest caseload in the state with approximately 23,000 cases in 2006 alone.

After learning of the passage of legislation and then finding that the judgeship would be an elected position, District Judge Seay and the two St. Clair circuit judges then set out to define the duties the new judge would have.

“We looked around at other counties that had more than one district judge…. many counties that have more than one district judge, such as Shelby, divide up the dockets,” Seay said. So he and the other judges set to divide up the duties between himself and the new judge.

Seay and Minor will share the docket. Minor will hear cases involving the dependency side of juvenile and family cases (such as DHR) where Seay will hear the delinquency cases. Minor will hear civil cases; Seay will hear the criminal and be in charge of drug court. Judge Charles Robinson handed down a decision stating that divorce cases will be split evenly between the two district judges and two civil judges. Each of the four will carry 25 percent of divorces on their docket.

Minor and Seay will share the two upstairs courtrooms in the Pell City Courthouse. While the Ashville courthouse is being renovated, a space across the street has been secured and is being used temporarily for hearing cases.