ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) --Last week, Allen Superior Court scheduled 10 trials for three criminal court judges. Only one of them went to trial. Cases can be continued, meaning postponed, and there can be last-minute plea deals. According to state data, Allen County needs about six more judges. Right now, there are 10. But week after week, court congestion affects the work of the courts, according to Allen County Prosecutor Michael McAlexander and defense attorneys interviewed for this story. Typically, defense attorneys want to stay anonymous because they don’t want to offend the judges, they’ve told WANE. State data known as Weighted Caseload Measures compiled by the state’s Office of Judicial Administration indicates Allen County needs six more judges, practically across the board. Superior Court judges Fran Gull, David Zent and Steven Godfrey are each doing the work of nearly two judges, the numbers say. Based on a ground zero number of 1.0, all but two of the county’s 10 courts could use some help.  That also includes Judge Ashley Hand’s Circuit Court which data says is short a judge. And in a new calculation, Allen County is number five out of 92 Hoosier counties in need of judges. Only Hamilton, Shelby, Vigo and Whitley rate higher. Union, Brown, Franklin and Blackford are at the bottom of the list and rate under .5, according to the list. “New judges have to be approved by the legislature,” McAlexander said. However, the legislators seem less inclined to appoint more judges who are paid by the state and turn to judges from underused counties to cover court business in strapped counties. In a recent Allen County Community Corrections meeting, attended by local judges, Allen Superior Judge David Zent said he has a problem with that. “They would rather have us go grab a judge from another county,” Zent said, “(but) the people of Allen County didn’t vote for (that judge) and they have no recourse if they don’t like what he did.” Out-of-county judges are typically used on special judge cases, said McAlexander who’s unaware of any push to acquire more judges in Allen County. This year, two Allen County magistrates were used as trial judges for murder charges, but generally, in this county, it’s the judges. In Marion County, where the need rate is under 1.0, magistrates often preside over murder trials. McAlexander says because of the high homicide solve rate in this county and the amount of work that is growing with the county population, his office needs more attorneys to handle the burgeoning workload. He estimates there are about 40 people sitting in jail waiting for their murder trials to begin. At the end of 2023, according to state data, there were 50 murder trials pending in Allen County while 31 were disposed of. One problem is the lawyer shortage and the fact that fewer people are going to law school, McAlexander said. His office has lost some of its lawyers to outlying counties where the workload is lighter and the pay is comparable. “We’re down easily six or seven lawyers,” McAlexander said. To combat the trend, the prosecutor’s office just raised its starting salary to more than $80,000. “We clearly need more staff to do the work,” McAlexander said and foresees AI (artificial intelligence) possibly helping with the amount of data that the prosecutors must pore over – body and dash cams, cell phone, Ring doorbells, recorded police videos with suspects – and then turn over to the defense. “We don’t have any more lawyers than we did 10 years ago,” McAlexander said to explain the amount of evidence divided by the number of attorneys. Court congestion can also scramble attorneys, victims and witnesses who sometimes need special transportation arranged to get to court. Defense attorneys told WANE that lining up witnesses can be difficult when trials get delayed and the same goes for the prosecution. “It can get frustrating for victims. There’s an emotional toll for them to get ready to go to trial, particularly if you think of a sex crimes case. To be discussing intimate details of a very traumatic event in your life and to get prepared to be on that witness stand in front of a bunch of strangers is tough. So we do see problems that way. It takes a toll on our staff in preparing cases, “ McAlexander says. New data can be found here: 2023 Amended Severity of Need by County