§604A-1 Environmental courts; establishment. (a) The environmental courts shall be created as divisions of the circuit courts and district courts of the State and shall not be deemed to be other courts as that term is used in the state constitution. An environmental court shall be held at the courthouse in each circuit, or other duly designated place, by the judge or judges of the respective environmental courts.
(b) The chief justice of the supreme court shall designate an environmental judge or judges for each circuit and for a district court in each circuit, as may be necessary; provided that if the volume of environmental cases in the circuit or district in which an environmental judge presides is not adequate to provide an environmental court judge with a full-time docket, the judge may hear cases arising from other areas of law. In any circuit that has more than one judge designated for the environmental court, the chief justice shall designate one of the judges as senior judge. The chief justice may temporarily assign an environmental court judge to preside in another circuit when the chief justice determines that the urgency of one or more cases in the circuit court or district court or the volume of the cases in the circuit court or district court so requires. [L 2014, c 218, pt of §2]