Goodyear municipal court reports record filings; expands dockets and staff initiatives

Presiding Judge Manuel Delgado told the Goodyear City Council work session on Feb. 10, 2025, that the Goodyear Municipal Court recorded 13,734 charge filings in fiscal year 2024 and has expanded courtroom dockets to run two dedicated courtrooms five days a week to address growing caseloads.

Delgado said the court’s filings include a wide range of matters: “we had 13,734. Of those, misdemeanor non traffic of 1,618,” and he listed additional categories including domestic violence, DUI and traffic charges. He added that calendar year 2024 total case filings were 8,362 and described that figure in relation to recent averages in the executive report provided to council.

The trend matters because Delgado said more than half of the court’s cases—“51.6% of the case load”—involve misdemeanors and criminal traffic matters, which typically require multiple court settings and additional post-adjudication steps for matters such as jail, counseling and interlock compliance. Delgado told council the court processes a high percentage of DUI cases, which he described as…