San Diego County Documents Part Of Courts Crisis

 
The San Diego County Bar Association is pushing its new “State of the Judiciary” report that outlines just how dismal things are becoming despite about $60 million in “reinstated” funding from the just-passed state budget. The San Diego NBC affiliate has a good report citing attorney Jon R. Williams, president-elect of the Association, as saying “… this isn’t just a lawyer issue. This is an issue that affects public safety. It affects businesses, and it affects families. It’s an issue that everybody should be concerned with.”
 
The report notes that Williams was the lead author of a just-released SDCBA study titled “State of the Judiciary in San Diego County” that reaffirms the notion that “justice delayed is justice denied.” It’s worth noting that part of the report discussion echoes concerns about funding sources, and NBC reported it this way: “All the people served by the courts don’t recognize themselves as a constituency, and thus don’t rise up to lobby or protest like other ‘special interests’. And, the judicial branch of government doesn’t have fundraising powers.”
 
The report can be seen as a sort of re-boot as political discussion of the courts shifts from the state budget to longer-term strategies, especially how deal with the anticipated social uproar once the budget cuts result in increased domestic violence, juvenile crime increases and other outcomes. See the NBC report here.