Южная Дакота рассматривает объединение двух западных судебных округов для повышения эффективности

South Dakota considering merger of two western judicial circuits RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - South Dakota’s court system could look a little different in western South Dakota. The Unified Judicial System is considering merging the administrative operations of the Fourth and Seventh Judicial Circuits and wants to hear from the people who live in those areas before moving forward. The proposal would affect 16 counties, including Pennington, Meade, Lawrence and Custer counties. Court officials say the goal is to make the system more efficient. But no decision has been made yet. Residents can weigh in The UJS will hold three public meetings Wednesday, Aug. 26, where residents can learn more about the proposal, ask questions and share their concerns. The meetings are scheduled for: - Rapid City: 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the Pennington County Courthouse, Courtroom C2 - Sturgis: 11 a.m.-noon at the Meade County Courthouse, Courtroom 3 - Lemmon: 3:30-4:30 p.m. at the Lonesome Dove Conference Center The Fourth Circuit currently includes Butte, Corson, Dewey, Harding, Lawrence, Meade, Perkins and Ziebach counties. The Seventh Circuit includes Custer, Fall River, Oglala Lakota and Pennington counties. For people who can’t attend one of the meetings, written comments can also be submitted to the State Court Administrator’s Office. The deadline for comments is Oct. 1. The UJS says the public feedback will be considered before any formal rule proposal is sent to the South Dakota Supreme Court. So, for now, the courts aren’t actually being merged — this is the public-input stage of the process. See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it. Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description. Copyright 2026 KOTA. All rights reserved.