§ 71a - Courthouses
§ 71a. Courthouses
(a) Except as provided herein, each county shall provide and own a suitable courthouse, pay all utility and custodial services and keep such courthouse suitably furnished and equipped for use by the superior court and probate court, together with suitable offices for the county clerk, assistant judges and probate judges. Office space for the probate court may be provided elsewhere by the county. Each county shall provide fireproof safes or vaults for the safekeeping of the official files and records required to be kept by county officials, including the files and records of a justice of the peace who has vacated his or her office. Use of the county courthouse by the supreme court, district court, family court or the judicial bureau may be permitted by the assistant judges when such use does not conflict with the use of the building by the superior court, provided that the office of court administrator shall pay the cost of any such use should the assistant judges choose not to pay the cost by use of county funds.
(b) If the state provides a building in which the superior court is held, the county clerk may also be located in the same building. The assistant judges, the court administrator and the commissioner of buildings and general services shall be the superintendents of the building. They shall make decisions regarding building construction, space allocations and use of the facility after consulting with the district court and the superior court presiding judges and the probate judge if housed in the building. The county shall no longer be required to maintain a courthouse. (Added 1993, No. 233 (Adj. Sess.), § 45, eff. June 21, 1994; amended 1995, No. 62, § 41, eff. April 26, 1995; 1995, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 4(c)(1), eff. May 6, 1996; No. 181 (Adj. Sess.), § 7; 1997, No. 121 (Adj. Sess.), § 16.)