Office of Retiring Judge Welsh Closing Sooner Than Expected

Magisterial District Judge Regis Welsh Jr. received a surprise this week when he was notified that his office is closing in mid-November even though his retirement is not effective until Jan. 2.

"It shocked me," Welsh said. "I wasn't prepared for it."

Chief Deputy Court Administrator Claire C. Capristo told Welsh in a letter that his office in Coventry Square in Hampton Township will close as of the afternoon of Nov. 18.

Welsh was elected to the office that handles everything from traffic tickets to criminal cases for Pine, Richland and Hampton townships. When he announced his retirement, the office was targeted for elimination as part of a reconfiguration of courts announced earlier this year to cut costs.

"To my great surprise, I was recently notified by letter from Court Administration that my office will close effective November 18, 2011, and no cases will be accepted, nor hearings held after November 17, 2011," Welsh said in a memo to the police departments whose cases are affected by the change.

, Hampton and Allegheny County police departments as well as Pennsylvania State Police file their cases at Welsh's office and officers are there regularly to testify.

"The closure was ordered by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts [AOPC], not by Allegheny County or the President Judge," Welsh wrote. "The AOPC, however, has not given instruction on how your departments are to deal with this closure, although Court Administration claims that we will receive 'additional instruction ... in the coming weeks.'"

In effect, the unexpected change puts a number of things in limbo.

Capristo's letter said they are waiting for instructions from AOPC about what to do with cases already scheduled for Welsh's court after Nov. 18.

Although the Hampton office's doors will be closed to the public in mid-November, the staff will still be there until Dec. 19 getting files straight and preparing to vacate the office.

It is unclear where people who come to Welsh's office to pay traffic tickets or fines are supposed to go. 

"If people come here after the 18th, banging on the door to pay, there's no one to take it. They can't pay it here," said Welsh, who often sets up payment plans for those who cannot afford to pay off a fine in one lump sum.

The timing also comes at an odd time because Welsh already is booked for a week of training in late October and a week's vacation before Nov. 18.

He said he would cancel the vacation if he had not already paid for it.

Welsh's four employees are in limbo also because they do not know where they will be working after Dec. 19, though they are guaranteed jobs in the court system.

On top of everything else, the courts' "archaic" computer system is moving into the 21st century, said Welsh, and his staff is scheduled for computer training during the week of Dec. 5. Now they will have to travel to Homestead for that instead of being trained at the Hampton office, he said.

In recent weeks, Welsh has watched the calendar closely during court proceedings to ensure that cases started under his watch are finished there, even giving a countdown of the number of days he has left in office.

He also is scheduled to officiate at a Dec. 23 wedding.

So it came as a bit of a surprise to find out the office would be closed Nov. 18. 

The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts is requesting that the court be closed "to facilitate the migration of data," wrote Capristo, who oversees district judges.

A mountain of paper files and 20 years of computer records need to be split up and sent to the offices of Magisterial District Judge Susan Blaschak and Judge William K. Wagner.

Blaschak will inherit the Richland and Hampton cases; Wagner will handle the Pine cases.

Welsh's office was slated for elimination after the state’s Supreme Court called for a 10-percent cut statewide in magisterial district courts because of state budget cuts.

Two offices in Allegheny County were targeted for elimination when their judges announced plans to retire.

In addition to Welsh’s seat, the seat currently held by Ross C. Cioppa was eliminated. Cioppa serves the boroughs of Braddock Hills, Braddock, Swissvale and Rankin.

[Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Magisterial District Judge Nathan Firestone’s seat was elminated. Although originally recommended for closing, that office covering Pittsburgh’s Wards 7 and 14 remains open.]

Closing the offices has a ripple effect on the remaining courts, which were reconfigured to spread out the caseload.

Blaschak will hear cases for Hampton, Richland and West Deer townships. Her office is at 2060 Saxonburg Boulevard in West Deer Township.

Wagner's cases will come from Pine, McCandless and Marshall townships as well as Bradford Woods Borough. His office is at 8105 Perry Highway in McCandless Township.