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Environmental Court

Press Release
Tuesday, June 12, 2012,
For Immediate Release:

City of Hattiesburg Launches a New Environmental Court System

Hattiesburg-On April 17, 2012, the City of Hattiesburg launched a new Environmental Court system at the request of the Department of Urban Development, the Mayor and City Council, and the support of the City’s neighborhood associations.

The goal of the Environmental Court is to provide efficient and effective case processing, judicial familiarity with cases, and a focus on public attention in making the community a cleaner and safer place to live, work and play.

The City Municipal Court system has restructured its court resources to create a specialized Environmental Court. The Environmental Court will group all noncompliance cases for hearing on specific dates in a court over which the same judicial official, Judge Jolly Matthews, will preside to promote consistency. Previously, land code violation cases were reviewed along with police violations by three separate municipal judges on a rotating schedule.

Today, Environmental Court also has its own Environmental Court Clerk, a separate court time in which environmental violations are heard only. One judge can hear all cases, thus allowing that judge to become familiar not only with applicable law, but also with any habitual offenders.

The Environmental Court is designed to ensure quick, decisive action which will deter future offenses. Also, in the last month, the Code Enforcement Division of Urban Development has increased from three to five code enforcement officers.  A few examples of violations are junk cars in someone's yard, overgrown lots with trash and litter, and dilapidated housing.