Judiciary Studying Federal Courtrooms for Possible Closure
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The Federal Courthouse in Jackson is apparently on the short list for closure, according to a new report. The Federal Judiciary is considering closing 60 of its 674 federal facilities in order to cut costs. The AP is reporting an annual savings of $16 million dollars in rent costs alone for the 60 facilities in 29 states. Documents show each of the locations were ranked on things such as cost, usage, location and the fact none have a resident judge. There are four locations on the list. If the Federal Courthouse in Jackson was to close, all cases would have to be heard in Memphis. “This could become a very much of a burden on on my clients, a lot of times the cases take several days, if not weeks to try and for somebody who lives here in Jackson to have to travel back and forth to Memphis each day for a trial,” said Michael L. Weinman, a Jackson Attorney. “We keep two courtrooms here in Jackson very busy, in fact three courtroom if you include the bankruptcy court, it’s difficult to see how they would be able to absorb that in the Memphis courthouse without, once again, causing a major logjam of cases.” Some of the cities on the list of targeted closures include, Beaufort , South Carolina, which is number one, followed by Parkersburg, West Virginia, Jackson is number 16, Winchester, Tennessee is 20th and Cookeville and Columbia rank 36th and 39th respectively.
