In cities with a population of 5,000 or more, the municipal judge is required to be a licensed attorney, unless an attorney is unavailable or not interested in serving. At present, there are approximately 27 law-trained and 52 lay municipal judges in the state. Vacancies that occur between elections are filled by appointment by the municipality's governing body. State law requires that each new municipal judge attend two educational seminars and all others attend one course conducted by the Supreme Court in each calendar year. If a municipal judge fails to meet this requirement without an excused absence from the Continuing Judicial Education Commission, the judge's name is referred to the Judicial Conduct Commission for disciplinary action.
Municipal courts have jurisdiction over municipal crimes and traffic cases.
Most of the traffic caseload of the municipal courts consists of noncriminal or administrative traffic cases. While these cases greatly outnumber the criminal traffic cases, they generally take much less time to process. There is a lesser burden of proof in noncriminal traffic cases than in criminal cases and most noncriminal traffic cases are disposed of by bond forfeitures. While judges are not needed to process bond forfeitures, support personnel in the clerk's office must account for every citation received by the court. Although criminal traffic cases compose only a small percent of the caseload in municipal courts, they require more time and resources for their disposition than noncriminal traffic cases.