Proposed Fourth and Seventh Judicial Circuit Merger
On Oct. 2, 2026, the South Dakota Unified Judicial System (UJS) State Court Administrator’s Office formally proposed a rule to the South Dakota Supreme Court that would merge the Fourth Judicial Circuit and Seventh Judicial Circuit. Read the press release.
Currently, UJS is divided into seven judicial circuits which operate as the administrative structure supporting circuit courts across the state. The Fourth Judicial Circuit consists of Butte, Corson, Dewey, Harding, Lawrence, Meade, Perkins and Ziebach counties. The Seventh Judicial Circuit consists of Custer, Fall River, Oglala Lakota and Pennington counties.
The proposed rule will be considered on Nov. 9, 2026, at 10 a.m. CST in the Supreme Court Courtroom at the State Capitol in Pierre.
View the Notice of Rules Hearing
What the Proposed Merger Means
The proposal would combine the Fourth and Seventh judicial circuits into one judicial circuit for administrative purposes. Instead of operating as two separate circuits with separate administrative structures, the combined circuit would operate under one presiding judge, one circuit administrator, one chief court services officer and one deputy chief court services officer.
The proposal is intended to give UJS greater flexibility to share judges, court services staff and clerk resources across the combined circuit and better respond to changing workloads and the needs of court users.
Public Forums
UJS held a series of public forums on Aug. 26, 2026, to share information and gather public input on the proposed merger of the Fourth and Seventh judicial circuits. The public forum locations were Rapid City, Sturgis and Lemmon. During the forums, the State Court Administrator’s Office gave a short presentation, followed by an opportunity for public comments and questions. View the Circuit Merger Proposal PowerPoint.
Frequently Asked Questions
The UJS periodically considers judicial circuit boundaries to help ensure workloads are distributed efficiently and courts can meet the needs of court users. Factors considered include changing demographics, court caseloads, connections among communities and trade areas, and the use of personnel and positions. The last statewide study of judicial circuit boundaries occurred in 1999, when the Eighth Judicial Circuit was eliminated.
Currently, a circuit boundary can limit how easily resources are shared between the Fourth and Seventh circuits. Combining the circuits would provide greater flexibility to use judges, clerk staff and court services resources where they are most needed.
Workloads are not the same in every county. Data shows some clerk offices with staffing deficits and others with available capacity. Under the proposal, a new chief clerk of courts would help develop work-sharing among offices so work could be redistributed when appropriate while keeping local offices available to the public.
People on probation would continue to report to their current probation office or as directed by their court services officer. The merger would not require people to travel to a central location for probation supervision. The proposal would allow UJS to use court services resources more efficiently across the combined circuit.
No. This is a proposal seeking comments and feedback. If a formal rule is proposed, there would be a public notice and written comment period, followed by a Supreme Court rules hearing at which testimony could be presented. The Supreme Court would then decide whether to adopt, reject or modify the proposal and would determine any effective date.
A merger would require a change to the Supreme Court rule which establishes the counties within each circuit.