“A judicial candidate should excel in both experience and leadership,” Bishop said in a prepared statement that outlined his credentials.

Robert J. Bishop

Bishop passed the bar in 1991. He was in the private practice of law in Allen County until 2006 where he handled many types of cases including public defender work in criminal and family courts. In 2006, he was hired to be the section chief of the Kosciusko County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Child Support Division where he remains today.

The Kosciusko County Child Support Division is an award-winning county office that has outperformed the national and state averages for child support performance for many years, Bishop said.

Since moving to Warsaw, Rob and his wife Lois have raised their two children in the Warsaw public schools. Their children attend Warsaw high school. Rob, Lois and the family attend Warsaw Community Church.

Bishop has been a leader in Warsaw through his service to the community. He has been a member of the Wayne Township Advisory Board, having first won in a caucus and then through an election. He is the immediate Past-President of the Warsaw Breakfast Optimists. He has been a Republican Precinct Committeeperson in both Allen and Kosciusko Counties and currently serves as a Vice-Committeeperson. Bishop is an avid cyclist and is a current member of the board of Kosciusko County Velo (KCV), the cycling club that maintains the Winona Lake Trails. The club also operates the Fat and Skinny Tire Fest. Giving back to the community by way of time and talent is important to Bishop.

Bishop serves as vice-president of the Kosciusko County Bar Association. Bishop has served as an attorney member of the Indiana Legislature’s Child Custody and Support Advisory Committee. Bishop has been invited to speak at numerous conferences including Indiana’s annual child support training conference, and at the training sessions held every four years for newly-elected prosecuting attorneys.

Trial experience is crucial to a judicial candidate. So much so that the state applications to fill a judicial vacancy require the candidate to list their major trial experience. Superior Court 3 handles various felonies including OWI cases. When felony cases go to trial, they are almost always jury trials. Simply put, any candidate for Superior Court 3 should have previously tried multiple jury trials. Bishop, through his 28 years of legal experience, has tried jury trials both as a public defender and as a prosecutor. He has also handled multiple-day civil bench trials.

In his role as a deputy prosecutor, Bishop is in court every week handling cases for the citizens of the county. Bishop’s experience leaves him well prepared to run a courtroom as the judge.

Superior Court 3 also manages the Kosciusko County small claims court. This court operates under simplified trial rules and has a limit on the amount of damages that may be sought. Many small claims cases are handled without the parties having attorneys. In this way, it is very much like the participants in many of the child support cases who simply cannot afford an attorney. The vast majority of the 3,100 cases in the child support division do not have attorneys. Process and procedures can make court cases easier for participants. For example, to avoid the inconvenience of having people come to the courthouse, the child support division uses an e-signature program to facilitate the signing of documents.