With nearly 100,000 real estate documents coming through her office, Coweta's Clerk of the Superior Court Joan Griffies says she needs help.

During Tuesday afternoon's budget discussion, Griffies told the Coweta County Board of Commissioners that she would like to add four employees to her 13-person staff.

In addition to the heavy real estate load, the clerk's office annually handles nearly 20,000 state and superior court cases, and the workload is only growing as the county expands.

Out of 245 working days in 1999, Griffies said 184 of the days are already reserved for court. During 88 of those days, two clerks are required to document the proceedings.

"Our service is being jeopardized," she said.

Griffies applauded the county's efforts at balancing the budget, but said the commission needed to consider other factors in their budget negotiations.

"At what expense are we balancing the budget? These are the needs of everybody in the county," she said.

The real estate division of her office is currently behind six to eight weeks and an additional person in that division could quickly catch the office up to speed, she said. The other three new personnel would be spread among the offices, court and microfiche divisions.