The courts

What this level is

Two kinds of judicial line can appear on an Indiana ballot, and they ask different things. A contested election for a trial judge works like any other race. A retention question has no opponent at all: a judge is already sitting, and the question is whether to keep them. The diagram below shows how a case moves from the courts at the bottom of the ladder to the ones above them, so you can see what each of those lines is for.

• Courts are a branch of government rather than a part of local government. A trial judge is not supervised by the county council or the commissioners, although the council does appropriate the court's county-funded costs and has to pay the salaries the state sets. ^{[1, 2]}
• In most counties trial judges are elected in contested races, usually with party labels. In Lake, St. Joseph and Marion counties certain superior court judges are instead appointed from a local commission's nominees and then stand for retention. ^{[3, 4]}
• A Court of Appeals or Tax Court judge first stands for retention at the first general election after two full years in office, and every ten years after that. There is no opponent, so the only question on the ballot is whether to keep them. ^{[5, 6]}

How these offices work together

Each item below is one step the law requires: which office hands what to which, and why.

1. Circuit and superior courts → to Court of Appeals

   The Court of Appeals is Indiana's intermediate appellate court and hears appeals from the trial courts and from certain agencies. A trial judge's rulings are reviewed there. ^[8]

2. Superior courts on retention → to Court of Appeals

   The superior court judges who stand for retention in Lake, St. Joseph and Marion counties hear the same civil, criminal, family, juvenile and probate cases as elected trial judges, and their rulings are appealed the same way. ^{[3, 4]}

3. Tax Court → to Indiana Supreme Court (Its justices stand for retention, but none is on the 2026 ballot.)

   The Tax Court hears appeals of state tax decisions, including decisions of the Department of Revenue and property tax decisions of the Indiana Board of Tax Review. The Supreme Court is above it. ^[9]

4. Court of Appeals → to Indiana Supreme Court (Its justices stand for retention, but none is on the 2026 ballot.)

   The Supreme Court can take a case up from the Court of Appeals. Its justices also stand for retention, but none of them is on the 2026 ballot. ^{[8, 5]}

5. Indiana Supreme Court (Its justices stand for retention, but none is on the 2026 ballot.) → to Circuit and superior courts

   Complaints about a judge's conduct are handled by the Supreme Court and its Commission on Judicial Qualifications. That process runs separately from retention, so a vote is not the only check on a judge and retention is not a verdict on their conduct. ^{[5, 3]}

6. Township small claims → to Constable

   In the nine Marion County township courts the elected constable is the court's bailiff: serving its papers and carrying out its orders, with police powers to do so. ^[10]

7. Township small claims → to Circuit and superior courts

   A township small claims court hears civil cases up to $10,000 and eviction cases arising in that township. Anything larger belongs to the circuit and superior courts. ^{[11, 12]}

8. City court → to Circuit and superior courts

   A city court hears violations of city ordinances, along with infractions, misdemeanors and small civil cases, within the limits its own statute sets. ^[4]

Every office at this level 118 races on this ballot

• Judicial retention: Court of Appeals

  A yes/no vote on whether a Court of Appeals judge keeps the job for another 10 years. Judges are appointed by the governor from three nominees of the Judicial Nominating Commission.

• Judicial retention: Tax Court

  A yes/no vote on whether the single judge of the Indiana Tax Court keeps the job for another 10 years.

• Judicial retention: county superior courts (Lake, St. Joseph, Marion)

  In Lake, St. Joseph and Marion counties, superior court judges are appointed through a local nominating commission and then kept or removed by countywide yes/no votes rather than contested elections.

• Judge, Circuit Court and Judge, Superior Court (contested elections)

  118 races in Indiana this year

  Trial judges elected by county voters. Circuit courts have general jurisdiction over all civil and criminal cases; superior courts have the jurisdiction their statute gives them, usually the same.

The problems this level has to solve

What the people elected to these offices will have to decide in the term starting in 2027, and why each one is a problem.

• A retention question has no campaign and no opponent, so a judge's decided cases are the main thing there is to read. Civic publishes those cases for each judge up for retention, with what they held and how they got there. ^[5]
• A court's staff and courtrooms are paid for by the county council, so how quickly a court can hear cases is decided partly in the council race rather than the judge's race. ^{[1, 2]}
• Marion County's retention judges had to pass a suitability vote of the Marion County Judicial Selection Committee, under HEA 1033-2026, before their names reached the ballot. ^[7]

Sources