FRANKFORT, KY - Courthouses will be closed statewide and all court services will be unavailable Monday, Aug. 6, as the Kentucky Judicial Branch shuts down for the first of three furlough days in 2012. This will be the first time since Kentucky’s modern court system was formed in 1976 that the Judicial Branch must close courthouse doors to balance its budget.

The furloughs will affect only non-elected court personnel, who will be off work without pay as part of the Judicial Branch’s Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Reduction Plan. The entire court system will be closed Monday, Aug. 6; Tuesday, Sept. 4; and Monday, Oct. 15. This includes the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Circuit Court, District Court, Offices of Circuit Court Clerk, the Administrative Office of the Courts and all court services, including Pretrial Services, Drug Court, the Court Designated Worker Program, Court Interpreting Services, the State Law Library and driver license branches.

Affected services will include:

· Trials and other court proceedings will not be scheduled on furlough days as there will be no staff available.

Items already on the docket for those days will be rescheduled.

· Driver licenses will not be issued.

· The Supreme Court will suspend its rule requiring pretrial officers to interview a defendant within 12 hours after incarceration.

No Pretrial Services staff will be working on furlough days.

· Deputy clerks will not be available to process bonds and no release orders will be issued.

· Existing after-hours protocol will be followed for processing domestic violence orders (DVOs) and emergency protective orders (EPOs).

· Local court designated workers will not be available. The Court Designated Worker Program will have a supervisor available to

ensure that law enforcement adheres to its statutory requirements in cases involving the arrest and custody of juveniles.

· Technology Services staff will not be available to recover the CourtNet database in the event the system experiences an interruption in service.

· County offices that share space with the state court system in courthouses and judicial centers will not be affected