Unlike L.A., Some Courts Cut The Cutting

Not all of California’s county courts are continuing with planned cutbacks in the wake of a state funding increase. San Mateo County Superior Court, for example, announced that one courtroom slated for closure would remain open and seven jobs will also be saved. The Daily Journal newspaper said that the county will get about $900,000 of the $60 million that the budget is returning to courts statewide.
 
However, the paper also noted, judicial officials say the increase “… must be viewed in light of $261 million in current cuts and mounting deficits from prior years of unprecedented slashing of funds.” The court is also a far cry from where it was last fall when judges announced the closing of six courtrooms along with shortened public service hours. Like other California courts, it is reorganizing in ways that will force people to travel longer distances to deal with cases ranging from traffic disputes to residential evictions.
 
How other counties handle cutbacks in the wake of the state funding increase could have impacts in Los Angeles, where some court critics day judicial administrators should have reduced or delayed job cuts due to the budget increase.
 
Read how San Mateo is doing here