Boyce F. Martin, Jr. - Kentucky Judicial Reform Efforts

Kentucky Judicial Reform Efforts

In the 1970s, Martin worked hard behind the scenes lobbying to reform the Kentucky Judiciary. The Kentucky court system had been little changed since 1850, and it had a host of problems. "Kentucky had a multiplicity of misdemeanor courts that were presided over, for the most part, by non-lawyer judges. There were county courts, magistrate courts, municipal courts, and police courts. It was not uncommon for the judges of these courts to be totally untrained in the law, politically partisan, and, in some cases, of dubious literacy." Appeals from these courts went to the Kentucky Court of Appeals whose decisions were of high quality, but could take two or three years to be handed down. The reform efforts bore fruit on November 4, 1975 when an amendment to the state constitution was passed by 54%. The amendment cleared the way to create a unified court system with a new intermediate Court of Appeals and the Kentucky Supreme Court replacing the old highest court.

As a reformer and the first Chief Judge of the newly created Court of Appeals, Martin quickly got the new court off the ground and cleared the backlog of cases that had developed under the old system. Martin's goals at the time were to speed up the appellate process, reduce cost, and create an efficient chain of justice, while maintaining a high level of conscientious decision-making. These goals were accomplished and the Court of Appeals was generally viewed as an unequivocal success.