Bailiffs, law clerks face state layoffs that affect up to 500

The state plans to lay off 450 to 500 of its 1,600 judicial employees statewide by Nov. 28, including bailiffs, law clerks, and others.

News about the cuts in the jury management office, combined with the word that all bailiffs will be laid off, hit Jefferson County court personnel hard Thursday.

"I am concerned with the plight of the court system. I am concerned with the uncertainty that our employees are going through," said Jefferson County District Judge Pete Johnson. "I'm waiting to hear something definitive."

David Williams, the AOC public information officer, said all bailiffs statewide and entire staffs in court administrator offices would be cut. A court administrator in each office will stay on the job. Such officers help manage jury trials and send out summonses. The office in Jefferson County is called the jury management office.

It was unclear Thursday how many employees are assigned there.

There are 25 bailiffs in the Birmingham court division and about three or four in the Bessemer Cutoff.

Presiding Circuit Criminal Judge Mike McCormick said that if bailiffs, who do mostly administrative work and help with juries in the courtroom, are cut the courts will not be able to function.

"We won't have sufficient administrative staff in order to carry on court," McCormick said. "They are not just sitting around the courtroom providing security. They are multi-task people. If we lose them, we won't have the majority of our staff left."

Court officials were told last month that bailiffs could be laid off, but McCormick said Thursday they have not received any official letter on the matter from AOC. "Until we do we really can't take any action, " he said.

Jefferson County Commission President Larry Langford said Thursday the county could consider providing $1 million to help the courts here, including providing money for bailiffs. "We aren't going to sit and let the courts and jury trials shut down," Langford said.

Most Jefferson County circuit criminal judges have one judicial assistant, a stenographer and two bailiffs. Newer criminal judges, however, only have one bailiff and one judicial assistant because of reduced AOC funding since they took office.

Williams said that by next month circuit judges will be allowed to keep one judicial assistant and a stenographer, and that district judges will be assigned to one judicial assistant. Circuit civil judges here do not have stenographers, but circuit criminal judges do.

Some circuit clerk merit employees statewide will also see layoffs depending on their longevity in the system and job evaluations, Williams said.

At Montgomery's AOC office 21 people will be laid off by Oct. 17, reducing the staff to 68, Williams said.

It was unclear Thursday how many people in Jefferson County will be laid off. Several court officials and judges said they have not received any official, written word from AOC about the layoffs.

The news, nevertheless, sent some courthouse employees into a panic, with some looking elsewhere for employment. Presiding Judge Scott Vowell cut short his vacation this week to fly home and hold a judges' meeting this morning to address concerns.

Williams said the only way to comply with reductions in the state budget - the AOC is some $12 million short - was to cut people from a system that is 95 percent personnel.

He said he did not know how court employees will operate after the layoffs.

"What we are doing right now is implementing the cuts," Williams said. "What we will be doing in December is living with the cuts."