For the first time in more than three years, Staunton and Augusta county courts have a presiding district court judge.
Wednesday state lawmakers appointed attorney Chapman Goodwin, whose offices are located across the street from the Augusta County Courthouse. He has been in private practice there since the 1970s.
Goodwin will preside over two courts and ease a backlog of cases as well as offer judicial consistency.
Delegate Dickie Bell (R) said, "The people represented before that court have some reasonable expectation of what might happen to them. And because judges tend to interpret laws differently, that changes with each substitute judge."
Bell says a shortage of money, and then a surplus of politics are to blame for the delay in hiring a new judge. Goodwin takes the bench on July 1.
