Request By:
Mr. John M. Lawrence
Attorney at Law
116 West Stephen Foster Avenue
Bardstown, Kentucky 40004
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
As a candidate for district judge of the 10th Judicial district, you are concerned about filling the positions of trial commissioner in the two counties [Hart and Larue] in which there will be no resident judge. The 10th circuit is composed of Hart, Larue and Nelson counties. KRS 23.040.
You ask under what circumstances could you as district judge appoint a non-lawyer trial commissioner.
Section 113(5) of the Kentucky Constitution reads:
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"(5) In any county in which no district judge resides the chief judge of the district shall appoint a trial commissioner who shall be a resident of such county and who shall be an attorney if one is qualified and available. Other trial commissioners with like qualifications may be appointed by the chief judge in any judicial district upon certification of the necessity therefor by the Supreme Court. All trial commissioners shall have power to perform such duties of the district court as may be prescribed by the Supreme Court."
If there is a resident lawyer qualified and available in Hart or Larue county, you would have to appoint such lawyer as trial commissioner. If, in either county, there is no qualified and available lawyer, you could appoint a nonlawyer as trial commissioner. Thus if a qualified and resident lawyer requests the position, you would have to appoint him to that post unless you had another qualified and resident lawyer to choose from.
You ask our opinion as to the duties to be performed by the trial commissioner, as relates to a lawyer and nonlawyer filling that position. The duties are those prescribed by the Supreme Court of Kentucky. Section 113(5), Constitution; and KRS 24A.100. We are enclosing a copy of a proposed set of rules governing duties of trial commissioners for your information. The Administrative Office of the Courts has told us that the proposed rules will probably be adopted by the Supreme Court of Kentucky.