Public notice for appointment of new magistrate judge

The Judicial Conference of the United States has authorized the appointment of a full-time United States magistrate judge for the Northern District of Indiana at Hammond.

The duties of the position are demanding and wide-ranging: (1) conduct of most preliminary proceedings in criminal cases; (2) trial and disposition of misdemeanor cases; (3) conduct of various pretrial matters and evidentiary proceedings on delegation from a district judge; and (4) trial and disposition of civil cases upon consent of the litigants. The basic authority of a United States magistrate judge is specified in 28 U.S.C. §636.

To be qualified for appointment an applicant must:

(1) Be, and have been for at least five years, a member in good standing of the bar of the highest court of a state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Territory of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, or the Virgin Islands of the United States, and have been engaged in the active practice of law for a period of at least five years (with some substitutes authorized);

(2) Be competent to perform all the duties of the office; be of good moral character; be committed to equal justice under the law; be patient and courteous; and be capable of deliberation and decisiveness;

(3) Be less than 70 years old; and

(4) Not be related to a judge of the district court.

A merit selection panel composed of attorneys and other members of the community will review all applicants and recommend to the district judges in confidence the five persons it considers best qualified. The court will make the appointment following an FBI full-field investigation and an IRS tax check of the applicant selected by the court for appointment. An affirmative effort will be made to give due consideration to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, age (40 and over), gender, religion, national origin or disability. The current annual salary of the position is $160,080. The term of office is eight years.

An application form and more information on the magistrate judge position in this court may be obtained from www.innd.uscourts.gov or the offices of the Clerk of Court listed below:

Clerk's Office
Suite 2300
5400 Federal Plaza
Hammond, IN 46320

Clerk's Office
1108 E. Ross Adair Courthouse
1300 S. Harrison St.
Fort Wayne, IN 46802

Clerk's Office
Room 102
Robert A. Grant Courthouse
204 S. Main St.
South Bend, IN 46601

Clerk's Office
214 Charles Halleck Federal Building
230 N. Fourth St.
Lafayette, IN 47901

An original plus 13 copies of the application and other submitted documents must be submitted in writing. In addition, a CD or DVD must be submitted containing a "PDF" version of the application and other submitted documents. The application and other documents must be submitted by the applicant personally. The application can be mailed or personally delivered, but must be received stamped in the Clerk's Office at the South Bend location described above by close of business on May 15. The application materials should be placed in an envelope marked "Confidential" and to the "Attention of Human Resources Division."

All applications will be kept confidential, unless the applicant consents to disclosure, and all applications will be examined only by members of the merit selection panel and the judges of the district court. The panel's deliberations will remain confidential.

The United States District Court is an Equal Opportunity Employer.