Chief Justice of the Commonwealth Laurance B. VanMeter, who took office as chief justice in January, gave his first State of the Judiciary address today before the General Assembly’s Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary at the Capitol Annex. He discussed an array of Judicial Branch topics, including pay parity, court facility needs and technology.
The chief justice is responsible for the administrative operations of the Judicial Branch and presents the State of the Judiciary each year. For a recording of the meeting, visit KET’s online video archive at kcoj.info/KETarchive.
Pay Parity
In his approximately 25-minute speech, Chief Justice VanMeter thanked legislators for approving Judicial Branch raises in the past two years but said pay for justices, judges and circuit court clerks still lags, and that non-elected employees are not compensated in line with those in the Executive Branch.

The Commonwealth’s justices and judges earn $24,000-$32,000 below the national average, depending on the level of court. For circuit court clerks, whose role includes managing court records for the trial courts, the salary difference for comparable roles ranges from $7,200 in Kentucky’s smallest counties to nearly $15,000 in urban areas, he said.
Chief Justice VanMeter also shared that the Judicial Branch received an unblemished audit report on its fiscal year 2023 financial statements from a third-party auditor. This is the third year of the branch having an external audit.
“This external audit is one of the many steps taken by the Judicial Branch to increase accountability and ensure good stewardship of taxpayer money,” he said.
Court Facilities
The chief justice reported that an independent, third-party architect had completed an assessment and ranking by need of 37 counties with court facilities that have not undergone construction or renovation authorized by the General Assembly since 1996. Legislators received a copy of the rankings.

In addition to constructing and renovating court facilities, the Judicial Branch is responsible for operating and maintaining the 5.4 million square feet of space it occupies across the state, which are primarily court facilities owned by counties and used by the state court system.
While the state has made significant investments in building and renovating court facilities over the years, 15 facilities remain substantially unchanged since the Judicial Article was passed in 1976 and 52 have not had projects authorized in this century, Chief Justice VanMeter told the committee. The functionality of some of these older facilities can be preserved by replacing key components, but the $4.6 million, or approximately 85 cents per square foot, the AOC receives in state funds annually for these projects does not meet the need, he said.
“This allocation only covers minor repairs and is insufficient to fund major replacements of vital building components, such as roofs, HVAC and electrical systems,” he said, explaining that the replacement cost for such components is typically over $1 million.
The Judicial Branch is seeking $53.5 million in General Fund projects to replace major components and complete repairs and renovations. The funds will be used to replace about 20 roofs, 30 HVACs, 25 electrical systems and complete several renovation projects.
Court Technology
Chief Justice VanMeter announced in his remarks that the Supreme Court recently took the next step toward the creation of an electronic case record by mandating that judges electronically enter orders in all case types in which attorneys are required to eFile, effective March 1, 2024.
“This change is a significant one for how many of our judges conduct business,” he said.
This requirement comes a decade after the start of eFiling for attorneys in Kentucky. The Supreme Court approved an eFiling pilot project in 2013, and by 2015, electronic filing was in every county in the commonwealth.
The court began making eFiling mandatory by case type for attorneys in 2022. As of Dec. 1, attorneys will be eFiling documents in over 40 case types.
Legal Practice
Chief Justice VanMeter also discussed Kentucky Bar Association initiatives to address the shortage of attorneys in rural communities and artificial intelligence.
Twenty-nine counties have 10 or fewer practicing attorneys and seven counties have less than five, he said. The KBA recently formed a Rural Practice Task Force to investigate issues impacting the rural practice of law in Kentucky.
The lack of attorneys “is concerning from both an access to justice and sustainability perspective,” including that it results in a limited pool of candidates to seek election when vacancies occur in judicial offices or the offices of the county or commonwealth’s attorney, Chief Justice VanMeter told the committee.
The KBA has also established an AI Task Force chaired by Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. (ret.). The evolution of AI, such as ChatGPT, raises new issues and concerns with how this technology is used in Kentucky courtrooms, Chief Justice VanMeter said.
A handful of state courts have established orders regarding the use of AI, placing the burden on the attorney to notify the court if they use this technology in the drafting of court filings and to confirm the accuracy of the information generated.
More Judicial Branch Testimony
The IJC meeting was completely dedicated to Judicial Branch matters. Following Chief Justice VanMeter’s address, the committee heard from Deputy Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert about the work of the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health, of which she is chair. Administrative Office of the Courts Director Katie C. Comstock and the head of AOC Pretrial Services provided an update on Senate Bill 90.
Supreme Court of Kentucky