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Tour of District includes stop at Peery House
l to r: Justice Bill Cunningham, District Judge Hunter Whitesell and Circuit Judge Tim Langford toured district last Monday.

(Springhill, KY)  -The tranquil setting of the Peery House disguised the miserable weather outside. The Peery House, named after Christie Peery Reynolds grandparents, offers special occasion lunches to groups. Christie caters events in the area out of her kitchen.

On Monday, Christie Reynolds and her staff, which for that day included her two teenagers released from school by countywide flooding, hosted the annual meeting of lawyers and judges. First District Kentucky Supreme Court Judge Bill Cunningham, Circuit Judge Tim Langford and District Judge Hunter Whitesell had lunch with lawyers who ply their trade in their courts.

Justice Cunningham updated attorneys from Fulton and Hickman Counties on upstate events. In commenting on the past session of the Legislature, the good news is that clerks and deputy clerks in the judicial branch will get their long awaited raise. It wasn't an easy task to put more money into a budget for one branch of government controlled by another. There appears to be some antipathy for the judiciary among legislators. The budget included a a special provision that whatever happened in this budget that judges would not get raises!

During their day tour, Judges Cunningham and Langford visited courthouses in Ballard and Carlisle Counties in the morning. The judges spent time with a class at Ballard County High School. Cunningham noted that students are not aspiring to go to law school and become lawyers.

Law schools are seeing a drop in enrollment. The Supreme Court has set up a study group to find ways to improve legal education and to find new ways of dealing with the bar exam. One idea that was welcomed was a proposal to move the exam to February of a student's third year of school. That would get students into their profession faster. Law students who graduate in May now take the bar in the summer and must wait until October before they can be sworn in to practice law.

Cunningham rebutted the widely held belief that the General Assembly is controlled by lawyers. Each year, he said there are fewer and fewer in the Legislature.

Judge Langford, in his remarks, complimented the far western lawyers for being prepared when they come to his court. Whitesell declined to speak, citing the great food that was being neglected. That got smiles from those in attendance.

One attorney told the judges that they are in the presence of lawyers who do the work of representing children and indigent clients in juvenile cases. The total pay for lawyers who do this work where there is no family court is $250. For lawyers in circuits with a family court, the pay is $500. District Judge Whitesell said that is not fair because it is the same work. Because it is in the lower court, the law pays them less.

Judge Cunningham said he was not aware of the discrepancy and said he would look into it.

On the tour for the first time was Judge Cunningham's new law clerk, Will Beauchamp. A recent law school graduate, Beauchamp is a Marine Corps veteran and a native of Harrodsburg.

After lunch, the Judges and the new law clerk left to visit the rest of the First District Courts in Hickman and Fulton County.  


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