HB 77-NUMBER OF SUPERIOR COURT JUDGES  1:52:27 PM CHAIR CLAMAN announced that the final order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 77 "An Act relating to the number of superior court judges in the third judicial district; and providing for an effective date." 1:53:15 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN asked if there are any metrics or anecdotes regarding the relative busyness of the judicial districts. He asked if workloads are fairly uniform across districts or if they are significantly different. 1:54:07 PM NANCY MEADE, General Counsel, Alaska Court System, said the courts are "relatively of the same busyness" but they do not have the same caseloads and activity across the state. She said the five busiest courts are Anchorage, Kenai, Palmer, Fairbanks, and Juneau. She said Bethel is a busy court, as is Ketchikan at times. She said there is not an even number of cases per judge across the state. She noted that judges also share responsibilities and activities, so if one judge has a long criminal trial, for example, another can fill in. She said there is movement and sharing of responsibilities within districts. 1:55:19 PM REPRESENTATIVE EASTMAN asked for confirmation that the court system found it easy to determine that the two new seats should be included in the Third Judicial District. MS. MEADE confirmed this. 1:55:53 PM CHAIR CLAMAN mused on his experience trying cases in Valdez, Cordova, and Homer. He recalled how Chief Justice Joel H. Bolger, when he was the district court judge in Valdez, would travel to Cordova to help pick up cases. He recalled other examples of what he called "not the most efficient setup" regarding judges having to travel to preside in other locations. 1:56:45 PM REPRESENTATIVE STUTES moved to report HB 77 out of committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal notes. There being no objection, HB 77 was moved from the House Judiciary Standing Committee.