Hammond City Court plans closure, gives deadline for new filings

After a protracted battle between the judge and the city, the Hammond City Court will not be accepting any new civil filings after Sept. 30 in anticipation of the court’s closure at the end of the year, according to a letter sent to local bar members from Hammond City Court Judge Amy Jorgensen.

An ordinance passed by the Hammond Common Council March 25 and approved by Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. the next day, calls for the city court to cease operations Dec. 31, 2019.

Originally, the common council passed an ordinance in January 2017 that abolished the city court. Although the closure date was pushed back by subsequent ordinances, tensions between the court and the city flared in the summer of 2017, according to a report in the Times of Northwest Indiana.

Jorgensen asserted she should have a voice in the transition process, but after her requests were rebuffed, she hired Ice Miller LLP, which sent a draft complaint to the city attorney. The Northwest Times reported that McDermott’s office then gave copies of the draft complaint to council members with a note that stated, “This is what Ice Miller did with the $5,000 claim that they received from Hammond. They took Hammond taxpayer money (given to them by Judge Jorgensen) & prepared a lawsuit naming all of us as defendants.”

A backlog of about 30,000 cases — including one from 1987 — was cited as the reason for delaying the closure beyond the end of 2018, according to the Post Tribune. The closure now is more certain since the constraints of property tax caps got the court chopped from the city’s budget, the newspaper reported.

Jorgensen’s letter only alerts attorneys to the impending closure of the city court. It does not provide any details about the process for closing.

The closure follows a trend of fewer city and town courts operating in Indiana as debate continues on the future of the venues that typically hear a range of cases from infractions and ordinance violations to minor misdemeanor cases. Some in the state judiciary believe the venues should be abolished while others claim they help relieve overburdened dockets.