Judges express concern about aging Richmond courthouse

Richmond’s Circuit Court judges recently warned they may take legal action against the city if maintenance and security issues at the 50-year-old John Marshall Courts Building are not addressed.

Jacqueline S. McClenney, the Richmond Circuit Court’s Chief judge, told the City Council’s Public Safety Standing Committee that the need for a new courthouse arose over three decades ago.

McClenney, who has served on the Richmond Circuit Court since 2021, spoke to the committee last month after she and the other Richmond Circuit Court judges wrote a demand letter to Richmond Mayor Danny Avula and the members of city council outlining concerns about the building.

“I’m not casting aspersions, but to be clear, this has been ongoing since 1994,” McClenney told the committee. The letter from the judges highlighted this fact, noting that the city sought proposals from architecture firms in the 1990s and that an assessment from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2018 found numerous security and construction deficiencies.

“This court has demonstrated a patience that cannot and will not continue indefinitely,” the judges wrote in their Feb. 27 letter. “If a locality fails to take action, the court has an obligation to take action.”

Concerns regarding the court building are “significant and troubling,” McClenney told the committee.

In an email to Virginia Lawyers Weekly, Richmond-based attorney Cullen Seltzer said Richmond’s judges and judicial staff “do extraordinary work” and that the community is “lucky to have them.”

“But they work in an outdated building with significant safety concerns and outdated systems,” Seltzer said. “The community would be best served with a courthouse better suited to meeting its safety and service needs.”

Dilapidated conditions

Constructed in 1975, the John Marshall Courts Building is on North Ninth Street in downtown Richmond, adjacent to the historic home of the building’s namesake, former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.

The building houses most of the city’s judicial branch, including the circuit and general district courts. Maintenance and security issues have plagued the aging building for many years. McClenney told the committee these issues affect those who work in the building and the citizens who pass through it daily.

“There are hundreds of people that come through the courthouse, hundreds that aren’t just employees and certainly aren’t judges,” McClenney told the committee. “We have an obligation to ensure the safety and security of the public and employees and we have many safety-related infrastructure challenges.

The issues with the courthouse outlined by McClenney include a worn out roof, water leaks and HVAC issues. The judge said plumbing problems are an “almost daily” occurrence, causing sewage leaks onto carpets that could potentially damage court records.

McClenney also noted that the building has accessibility issues. This problem creates a potential for falls and raises a concern about accommodating “differently-abled people in the event of an emergency,” she said. Richmond attorney Stephanie E. Grana echoed that concern.

“In my experience, handicapped and clients who use a wheelchair have had a very difficult time using the bathrooms on the second and third floors of the John Marshall Courts Building,” Grana said. “There are also limited spaces for an attorney to have a private conversation with a witness, client or opposing counsel.”

Designed as a neutral backdrop for Marshall’s historic home, with an all-glass façade around the box-shaped building, McClenney said the see-through exterior poses a security risk. “The building’s façade, as you well know, is glass — all glass — exposing occupants to the streets and creating risks of outside urgent and emergent issues,” McClenney said.

Additional security risks include a lack of electronic locks on all doors and a lack of interior circuit court cameras.

“There is not much separation in the courthouse between public areas and private areas, and matter of fact the sheriff has to sometimes transport inmates, particularly if they are women inmates or juvenile inmates, through the judges’ private quarters,” Richmond Circuit Court Clerk Edward Jewett told the committee. Jewett also said that the safety concerns mean that in the event of an emergency, the building could face issues in instituting a lockdown.

Future plans

In October 2021, state inspectors with the Virginia Department of General Services Division of Engineering and Building found that the John Marshall Courts Building was not compliant with state code.

That same year, the city of Richmond formed a committee to oversee a proposed project for a new courthouse at the John Marshall Plaza site that would both provide an updated courthouse and consolidate judicial functions in the city. Per the city’s website, the project’s status remains pending.

In 2024, officials in Richmond raised concerns about the cost of the project, projected to cost approximately $300 million, as it relates to the city’s debt capacity, essentially pausing the development.

With Avula taking office in January, the debate over a new courthouse in the state’s capital was reignited.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the city of Richmond said that the city “is committed to charting a course for a great judicial facility benefitting the residents of Richmond, one that is safe, secure, accessible and equipped to meet the highest standards of public service.”

The spokesperson also said Avula has “committed more than $14.5 million to the planning and design of a new facility,” and highlighted that the city routinely inspects the John Marshall Courts Building to make necessary safety and security upgrades.

Richmond City Councilwoman Reva Trammell, who chairs the public safety committee, told the committee that she was “not happy” over the discussion, adding that she felt the need for a new courthouse has been delayed for too long.

“This is very important, this is serious, and now that it is out in the open, we have put [the judges’] lives out front and the citizens that go to the courthouse,” Trammell said. “I’m not happy about it, and it should have been addressed a year ago.”

Seltzer agreed that the needs cited by the judges have been deferred for too long.

“A new courts building is a significant investment for any community but investing today in the administration of justice for another 50 or 100 years will pay dividends our grandchildren will be grateful for,” Seltzer said.

Looking towards the future, Richmond-based attorney Taylor Brewer said she hopes the court continues its policies for allowing private breaks for attorneys who need them, namely nursing mothers.

“Women lawyers were thrilled when [the Richmond Circuit Court] circulated an updated policy in October 2023, acknowledging the need for pumping accommodations for women lawyers,” Brewer said. “Many courthouses across the commonwealth do not have these policies, and it is encouraging to know that even when space is limited, Richmond Circuit recognizes the need.”

While noting that the judges maintain a monthly meeting with city staff to discuss the building and “how we can tape it together from day to day,” McClenney highlighted the urgency of the issues. “They do an excellent job of meeting with us monthly and figuring out what is going to happen, but it’s not even really a Band-Aid anymore,” McClenney told the committee.

EDIT: This story has been edited to correct the fact that Carl Tobias is a professor at the University of Richmond. VLW apologizes for the error.