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The Hennepin County District Court is divided into several blocks, in which judges serve for varying amounts of time.
Those areas are Civil, Criminal, Conciliation, Family, Housing, Probate/Mental Health, Drug Court and Juvenile Court.
Juvenile Court
Juvenile Court assignment includes all Juvenile Court case types: Adult Certification, Adoptions, Child In Need of Protection and Services (CHIPS), Delinquency, Extended Jurisdiction Juvenile (EJJ), Status Offenses (such as tobacco or curfew), Runaways, Traffic and Truancy cases.
The mission of the juvenile court is to provide the highest quality of service to the children, families and public of Hennepin County. To do this, the Fourth Judicial District will ensure that all persons are heard and treated with respect while balancing the respective rights of all parties, keeping the best interest of the child the paramount consideration in child protection proceedings. In delinquency cases, we will strive to protect the public by addressing each child’s needs through the least restrictive alternative necessary to restore him or her to law-abiding behavior. The court will balance public safety with the need for more community involvement in protecting and helping our children.
Family Court
Family Court judicial officers are responsible for handling:
> Individual block cases
> Mandatory calendars (Domestic Abuse, Contempt, County Attorney,
Paternity, Jobs)
> Signing duties (as daily public signer and as co-signer of all referee orders)
> Community outreach (Divorce Education Video Program; Family Court
Forum; Speakers
Bureau; Domestic Violence Coordinating Counsel, etc.)
In August 2001, Hennepin County Family Court implemented pilot recommen-dations made as the result of a case management conference sponsored by the Justice Management Institute. Those strategies include:
> Formation of 6 judicial teams with between 1.5 – 3 judicial officers per team.
New cases are equally dispersed between teams based upon the number
of judicial officers per team.
> Early scheduling of case management conferences
> Utilization of informative notice of judicial assignment and order setting initial
case management conference
> Early referral to resource support services
> Expectations and timeline for resource support services
> Specific criteria and case type for assignment of team cases versus
individual block cases.
Probate / Mental Health Division
The division hears all petitions concerning: estates (informal, unsupervised, supervised and special administrations); trust matters; guardianship and conservatorship of person and/or of estate; and, civil commitment of persons who are chemically dependent, mentally retarded, mentally ill, mentally ill and dangerous to the public, sexual psychopathic personalities, sexually dangerous; and allegations that individuals who carry infectious diseases failed to comply with treatment directives. Five judicial officers are assigned to the Probate/Mental Health Division: one judge and four full-time referees. This division operates as one team using a modified master calendar in the probate area (so that whenever possible one referee jurist is assigned to each estate) and a master calendar in the mental health area.
The presiding judge oversees the court’s relationships with the civil commitment defense panel, the examiner panel, and the guardianship/conservatorship lawyers panel, the guardians and conservators, local hospitals, residential and nonresidential treatment programs, State of Minnesota departments, and the several Hennepin County agencies and departments involved in providing services to disabled or vulnerable adults, the chemically dependent and mentally ill.
Generally, matters involving civil commitment for criminal defendants found incompetent to proceed in gross misdemeanor and felony prosecutions and who are alleged to be mentally ill and dangerous to the public as well as allegations that a person is a sexual psychopathic personality or a sexually dangerous person are tried before the presiding judge.
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