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Maricopa judges ask supervisors to split White Tank precinct to ease overloaded justice courts
Summary
Judges and court administrators told the Board of Supervisors that several justice court precincts—most notably White Tank—exceed statutory workload limits and proposed redrawing precinct boundaries and creating a new court to rebalance cases and relieve staff burnout.
Judges from Maricopa County justice courts told the Board of Supervisors during a presentation that several precincts are handling caseloads above the statutory productivity threshold and asked the board to approve a plan that would split the White Tank Justice Court precinct and redraw boundaries across the county.
The request, delivered by Judge Lenore Driggs, presiding justice of the peace for the Arcadia Biltmore Justice Precinct, and Judge Heidi Owens of the White Tank Justice Court, emphasized rising filings and staff strain. Judge Driggs said justice courts in Maricopa County recorded 331,191 case filings in 2024 and more than 160,000 filings in the first six months of 2025; she said traffic tickets account for about 40% of justice-court workload. Driggs cited Arizona Revised Statutes Title 22 and the statutory judicial productivity credit (JPC) formula as the basis for precinct sizing and thresholds.
The judges said the county…
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