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Changes coming to two Justice of the Peace Courts

Delaware Public Media

Two Justice of the Peace courts are changing locations and combining.

Justice of the Peace Court 20 and Justice of the Peace Court 10 will close in their current locations, combine, and relocate to the 7th floor at the Leonard L. Williams Justice Center in Wilmington.

The new setup will feature one big courtroom and three smaller court rooms.

JP Court 20 is currently in Wilmington’s Public Safety Building, which also houses the Police department. It will close there Tuesday and reopen at the Justice Center on Saturday.

JP Court 10 closes at its current location in the Prices Corner area October 4 for its move to the Justice Center.

Chief Magistrate Judge Alan Davis explains why the decision was made.

"The decision was kind of an incremental one. We ran into a lot of different things and then we finally settled on `let's consolidate, let's go into the New Castle County courthouse’ because there's space available - the 7th floor was unfinished at the time - and we were able to get quite frankly fantastic space in the New Castle County courthouse," Davis said

The news JP Court 20 courtroom opening in the Leonard Williams Justice Center

Davis notes the new space will also allow for more room for the staff.

"In addition because this is a consolidated location and we are going to expand to do community court work in this space it gives us more opportunities for staff to be better situated," said Davis. "It also gives us enough room to do some of those community court operations in a more meaningful fashion."

Davis notes the move of JP Court 20 from the Public Safety Building eliminates any ethical questions as it’s always best for courts and police departments to be separate. 

A previous version of this story referred to Alan Davis as Magistrate Judge.  He is Chief Magistrate Judge.  Delaware Public Media apologies for the error.

Joe brings over 20 years of experience in news and radio to Delaware Public Media and the All Things Considered host position. He joined DPM in November 2019 as a reporter and fill-in ATC host after six years as a reporter and anchor at commercial radio stations in New Castle and Sussex Counties.
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