TOPEKA—The Kansas Supreme Court announced today it has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the State Justice Institute to contract with the National Center for State Courts to conduct job classification and compensation analyses for 1,600 judicial branch employees.
In announcing the grant, Chief Justice Lawton Nuss noted that court operations have changed considerably since the current judicial branch pay plan was approved by the Kansas Legislature in 2000.
"Our courts continue to make more and better use of technology to process cases. That has changed how we do business and the skills our employees must have," Nuss said. "This study will ensure we have up-to-date job classifications that accurately reflect the type and scope of work performed, as well as propose rates of pay that are proper for each."
The first part of the project will cover job classifications and compensation for employees who work in district courts across the state. The second part will look at appellate court job classifications and compensation. The third part will review compensation for district magistrate judge positions.
The analyses will include surveying court workers on the types of work they perform and then weighing those tasks against well-defined factors to determine the best salary and position match.
Nuss noted that by the time the grant project is complete, all state courts in Kansas will be accepting court filings electronically. Also, court services officers have already transitioned to mandatory automated evidence-based risk assessment tools that have created new job duties and new training and certification requirements.
"This will be the first time that pay for non-judge court employees will be compared to pay for similar positions in other cities, counties and states," Nuss said. "Through this objective analysis, we will gain a clearer understanding of where our state courts stand when it comes to attracting and retaining qualified employees."
Consultants with the National Center for State Courts have conducted similar studies for other court systems, including some in nearby states of Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Minnesota.
This will also be the first compensation study of the district magistrate judge position since it was created by statute in 1976. Magistrate judges conduct preliminary hearings in felony cases; they try misdemeanor, traffic, and cigarette or tobacco cases; and exercise limited civil authority. Their jurisdiction is limited compared to district judge positions, and incumbents are not required to be lawyers, although many are.
The National Center for State Courts surveys and semiannually reports on pay for judges, but their reports do not include a direct equivalent to Kansas' district magistrate judge position. Kansas ranks next to last among the states for district judge pay and 45th in pay for justices on its Supreme Court.