Groups Ask State Court To Block Courthouse Cutbacks

April 3, 2013 By
Groups opposing Los Angeles Superior Courts cutbacks have taken their cases to a state court after a federal court judge decided not to rule on their argument. They say the state-level effort is to cover their bases while planning an appeal on the federal dismissal. The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin is quoting Maria Palomares, a lawyer working with the Neighborhood Legal Services organization, as explaining that, said the appeals court should act urgently to reverse the policy, implemented March 18, that would cram the county’s 70,000 annual eviction cases into just five courtrooms.
 
Last year, tenants could go to 21 courthouses to try to avoid being kicked out of their homes, the paper reported. Palomares argued this creates a hardship for tenants who would have to commute for hours to courthouses as far as 60 miles away to fight eviction. The groups noted that when Federal Judge Terry Hatter quickly dismissed the earlier lawsuit he did not rule on the merits but indicated a different court should hear the case.
 
The Daily Bulletin story was written by Christina Villacorte: christina.villacorte@dailynews.com @LADNvillacorte on Twitter. Read the story here. 
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Heat Is On Judges With Court Cutbacks

April 2, 2013 By
Asking some hard questions about how California courts are managed, a column by James Preston Allen puts the focus on the judicial branch. The publisher of the website Random Length News (www.randomlengthnews.com) actually compares the justice system to church. It’s an important voice because it pushes back on the judicial branch argument that the finger should be pointed at the state budget.
 
In a recent column, he wrote: “When you think about it, courts and churches do have some striking similarities. Both have these large symbolic edifices with intimidating rooms of pomp and ritual where attendees sit in rows. One is refrained from approaching the altar, judicial or otherwise, unless invited and the officiators for either God or law all wear ceremonial robes. I could go on, but I think you get the point. Just as we have segregated God from pedestrian access, so too have we separated justice from the common civic experience. It’s about to get worse in our California justice system.”

Allen follows that with a list of financial issues, noting that the current crisis ” is just more of the unintended consequences of balancing the state budget while screwing the taxpayers.” That column has been picked up by City Watch L.A. and you can read the details here.

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L.A. Court Cuts Becoming Model For Others

April 1, 2013 By
If anyone was wondering if the reorganization and centralization of the Los Angeles County court system would become a model for others, they can stop. It, of course, is. The most recent public example came from the Bakersfield Californian as the paper, in an editorial, said that counties will “… have to get creative, and some already have. Los Angeles County Superior Court, faced with an even bigger shortfall, will create specialized hubs where certain cases will be processed, such as personal injury, limited civil, small claims, collections and unlawful detainer [eviction] matters. All general civil personal injury and some civil actions, for example, must be filed at a single specified courthouses… Kern County officials will have to look at those and similar models to keep the already-overburdened court system moving…”
 
Kern County is like many others in facing big local cuts, and faces a $3.7 million deficit. The Californian outlines other options and notes “… some suggested more than a year ago by then-Los Angeles County Presiding Judge Lee Smalley Edmon, include simplifying criminal and civil procedures — something that’s long overdue regardless of budgetary necessity.”

You can see the editorial and get more details here.

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‘Charging A Cover’ To Access Courts? $10 Charge For Records Prompts Lots of Pushback

March 25, 2013 By
It’s no surprise that a proposal to charge $10 per file for routine court document access is getting lots of pushback, and our favorite comment comes from a quote in the Courthouse News Service from a Sacramento judge named Steve White, who compares it to a cover charge:  “It would put almost anyone who covers court news out of business,” said White. “Whether that’s the intention or not, that would be the result. Through that lens you can appreciate that it’s not much different than asking a cover charge to watch the trials we preside over.”
 
Judge White was reacting to costs for covering the courts. The CNS gives this example: “… a newspaper reporter reviewing the day’s newly filed cases for news would be hit with a ten-dollar fee for every case reviewed, a sum that would add up to roughly $400 a day in San Jose’s superior court and $700 a day in San Francisco.” The story also notes that nobody really bothered to project income from the fee and other issues.
 

Read it here.

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Federal Courts Now Face Own Shutdowns

March 22, 2013 By
It’s not just California’s state courts facing widespread closings these days. Federal courts, blaming the across-the-board “sequestration” budget cuts enacted because Congress and the president couldn’t reach a financial deal, are being blamed for employee furloughs and once-a-month courtroom closings, according to The Courthouse News. The CN said that “San Francisco, San Jose and Eureka Federal Courts will shut down on the first Friday of each month, and Oakland Federal will close the first Monday of the month.”
 
The report quotes Judge Julia Gibbons, who chaired the federal Judicial Conference Budget Committee, explaining that sequestration put the judiciary in “uncharted territory,” facing a “budget crisis that is unprecedented, one that is not likely to end in the near term.” Another quote that sounds a lot like the state judges talking about their financial problems: “We believe we have done all we can to minimize the impact of sequestration, but a cut of this magnitude, particularly so late in the fiscal year, will affect every aspect of court operations.”
 
Read more on the issue here.
 

 

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Rich vs. Poor Increasingly The Focus of Court Debate

March 21, 2013 By
Street protests in Los Angeles last week against court reorganizations included speakers who stressed that California is creating a two-tiered justice system. One will be for the relatively wealthy who can hire lawyers, they argue, and the other will be for the poor who face longer waits, long travel times and increasingly difficult access to their courts. A new lawsuit even claims the changes are illegal (see previous posts and links).
 
Now the Tribune newspaper in San Luis Obispo has added its voice to that argument. In an editorial, the paper says that “… help that used to be available to assist those [lower income] litigants, 70 percent of whom come without lawyers, has been slashed to the bone. Help with forms, telephone responses and via email is nearly gone. Twenty-five counter service windows have been closed and the hours reduced for those that are left. Even janitorial services have been cut to the most basic level… if civil litigants are wealthy, they can pay for private mediation. But for the indigent, stuck in overwhelmed and understaffed public courts, it can take as long as five years to schedule a trial. For injured plaintiffs waiting for relief, justice delayed that long is a gross injustice.”

Five years? Read the entire opinion here.

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Editorial Boards Continue To Lament Court Cutbacks

March 20, 2013 By
The new rationing system for California justice is gaining attention of the mainstream press, and over the past few weeks some of the state’s newspaper editorial boards have taken stands. It’s interesting that the opinions tend to be numbers-filled, a sign that the writers know their readership is not yet up to speed on the issue. You can add a very fine Sacramento Bee editorial, bylined by “the editorial board,” to the list.
 
Notes the Bee: “According to the [state] chief justice, since January 2010, 22 courthouses have closed across the state, 114 courtrooms have been shuttered, 30 courts have reduced their hours of operations, and more than 2,600 court employees have either been laid off or left and were not replaced… Scores of specialty courts for veterans, the homeless, people with mental illnesses and drug addicts have gone by the wayside.
 
“The result – access to justice, particularly the civil side of justice, has been dangerously curtailed.
In Sacramento County, for example, more than a quarter of the courthouse workforce, 230 people, has been laid off or left and not been replaced since 2008. Family law litigants seeking to divorce or settle child custody and support matters can wait up to seven hours to file documents… Help that used to be available to assist those litigants, 70 percent of whom come without lawyers, has been slashed to the bone. Help with forms, telephone responses and via email is nearly gone. Twenty-five counter service windows have been closed and the hours reduced for those that are left. Even janitorial services have been cut to the most basic level.”
 
Read the lament here.
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$10 To View Court Documents? 1st Amendment Groups Protesting

March 19, 2013 By
You can add First Amendment groups to those upset by budget-crunching changes to the California justice system. They say a new $10 fee just to view court documents limits access to public information. The Judicial Council, the policy guys for the courts, say it’s just a way to fund the system. Peter Scheer of the San Rafael-based First Amendment Coalition, also complains that the change was deep in Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget bill rather than in sponsored legislation – a way to limit opposition.
 
“This will alter and in this case diminish the scope of a personal right of citizenship,” Scheer told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, which covered the issue this week. “It should not be done by trailer bill in the dark of night.” His voice adds to a growing chorus of discontent as long-promised changes in the court system take effect and as more details of Gov. Brown’s budget come to light.
 
Read the excellent report here. 
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Daily News Offers Good Story On Court Protests

March 18, 2013 By
Looking for a good handle on last week’s court protests? Then check out the L.A. Daily News. That’s news too, because the paper has not exactly led coverage on the issue; nothing like marching in the streets to draw the mainstream media. That said, staff writer Christina Villacorte does a good job outlining the issues  of a federal lawsuit, especially the arguments that the court changes violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA.
 
Villacorte also amplifies growing complaints that the court cuts took place in relative secrecy, reporting that “… The Save Our Courts Coalition, made up of community groups, religious organizations, legal aid providers, labor union and court employees, demanded that the Los Angeles Superior Court cancel the closures, hold public hearings at each of the affected courthouses and find other ways to balance its budget.”
 
A great get-up-to-speed link to send to your non-court-watching friends is right here. 
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ADA Is Key To Court Re-Org Lawsuit

March 15, 2013 By
The Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA, appears to be the heart of that complaint filed against state reorganization of its courts. The federal complaint, filed March 13, makes an argument that under the new system “… there will be no unlawful detainer courtrooms in the San Fernando Valley [so] tenants from the Valley will be forced to travel to either Santa Monica or Pasadena – areas to which there is no adequate public transportation route from the Valley.” Unlawful detainer is the term for eviction actions.
CCM staff photo

CCM staff photo

 
The complaint offers an example of a San Fernando Valley resident who now could access a courthouse six miles away but would have to travel some 30 miles to Santa Monica under the new system. The action, filed by a coalition of non-profits including a low-income housing group, notes that state law offers strict timelines for eviction cases and that lack of transportation might favor the landlords.
 
Read about the issue and access a copy of the full complaint here. 
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