Bay Area TV Report Hits Hard On Court Delays, Funding

July 24, 2013 By

The NBC affiliated TV station in San Francisco has broadcast a strong story about court delays due to ongoing budget cuts, including a court critic who notes that the judicial administrators are partly to blame for poor spending decsions. The “Bay Area Investigative Unit” found delays in every one of California’s 58 Superior Court systems and documented backlogs that included 30,000 documents stacked on one court’s floor awaiting proper filing.

Among the hard-hit are family courts, and the Investigative Unit reported the story of a Contra Costa County family court custody dispute for more than three years, leaving five and seven year old kids in legal limbo.

“I see my children,” the mother involved in the custody battle told the station. “They cry for me.”

Watch the report here. (Editor’s note: the print version on the website is a bit different from the video, which includes more details.)

 

 
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Governor, Judicial Council Dismiss ‘Open Government’ Provisions

July 1, 2013 By
 
In a likely blow to an already tense relationship, the California Judicial Council has successfully side-stepped an “open government” provision of the state budget that would have required that the group’s meetings be public. The Judicial Council, which is the administrative office of the justice system, had come under fire during the recent state budget process for its spending practices and for conducting most of its decision-making process in secret. Labor groups, in particular, argue that too many judicial admin decisions are made without public comment.
 
Those concerns earned provision to open Judicial Council process as part of a budget bargain. But last Friday, reports Courthouse News Service, “… after lobbying by California’s Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Governor Jerry Brown on Thursday ‘blue penciled,’ or eliminated, that transparency provision.”
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Gay Marriage Ruling Begins A Process

June 27, 2013 By
 
This week’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage clears the way for same-sex couples to tie the knot in California, but the state’s legal system could take a month to complete its process. The judgement was, of course, big news across the state but for some of the better social media commentary and general over-the-top coverage of the Los Angeles celebration let us recommend our friends over at WEHOville.
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Juvenile Court Judge Feeling Crappy About Justice System

June 25, 2013 By
 
Jim Newton’s L.A. Times column Monday offered a glimpse into what’s already happening to the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, which continues to be a victim of the state’s judicial rationing. Newton profiled Judge Michael Nash, who supervises the court and is heralded by some for increasing transparency in the “Dependency Court” where foster care cases are heard. 
Michael Nash, presiding judge of the Juvenile Court in Los Angeles County (The Los Angeles Times published this photo as part of the juvenile court story.)

Michael Nash, presiding judge of the Juvenile Court in Los Angeles County. (The Los Angeles Times published this photo as part of the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court story.)

 
“I feel as crappy about things as I have in a long time,” Nash tells the paper, adding that “… it’s just very difficult to do the job in a meaningful way.” Budget cuts are, of course, part of that and he also laments what he feels are poor social worker decisions about taking kids out of homes – a process he thinks is partly because the workers worry about being “second guessed.” 
 
The column includes some eye-popping stats: “As of today, [Nash] said, each of the court’s 20 full-time judges handles roughly 1,350 cases at any given time, well above the recommended maximum. Often, matters of grave consequence must be heard and decided in minutes, even when they call for careful deliberation. A typical day’s calendar for a Dependency Court judge might include deciding how much and what type of medication to authorize for a child; whether to remove children from homes after allegations of neglect or abuse; and whether to place them in the hands of strangers or relatives, or return them to shaky parents.”
 
What will be more difficult to track is what happens to the court now that access to justice has been curtailed to the point that we’re bound to have more homeless, more bench warrants and more trouble hitting homes. You can read the column here and you can follow the writer on Twitter: @newton jim. 
Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

L.A. Co. Layoffs Came Despite Increased Funding

June 24, 2013 By
 
In the days leading up to layoffs in the Los Angeles County Superior Courts, some labor leaders wondered why the cutbacks were coming despite increased state funding and a new formula that would ensure that $60 million would not only go directly to trial courts, but be distributed under a formula that will likely send a higher percentage of that money to L.A. County.
 
Alex Matthews at the Capitol Weekly, a government-focused newspaper, has a good story that includes significant background. He cites officials noting that “… some counties, such as San Diego, Santa Clara, Orange County, and San Francisco had received more money than was necessary for their workload in the past and will therefore lose some money under the new allocation methodology. Others that have been particularly affected by budget cuts, such as Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Fresno, Riverside, and San Joaquin, will receive more.”
 
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Iranian TV News Still Covering Court Cuts

June 20, 2013 By
Click here to watch the Press TV report about California courts budget cuts.

Click here to watch the Press TV report about California courts budget cuts.

While most of the state’s TV journalists have adopted the “California budget miracle deal” narrative, at least one international news service has created a fairly detailed report with focus on how continuing cutbacks impact poor and handicapped citizens. The Tehran-based Press TV uses extensive (by TV news standards) video of a street protest at downtown’s Stanley Mosk Courthouse and David Sapp, an ACLU spokesperson, comments on-air.
 
 
Sapp notes that it’s actually illegal not to provide access to justice for the handicapped. The Press TV report is also among the few to predict increases in bench warrants and vehicle seizures because people will not be able to access the court system.
 

You can see the report (it’s in English) here.  

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Balanced budget? ‘Too little, to late’ for L.A. County court

June 12, 2013 By

 

While the Governor and legislators celebrate their $96.4 billion budget deal, workers at L.A. County court are waiting for their pink slips.

According to an L.A. Times story today: “The Los Angeles County Superior Court plans to eliminate more than 500 jobs by the end of the week in a sweeping cost-cutting plan to close a projected $85-million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year.” The story also includes a breakdown of the layoffs.

Photo credit: Al Seib/L.A. Times as part of the L.A. Times coverage of the L.A. Court layoff story

Photo credit: Al Seib/L.A. Times as part of the L.A. Times coverage of the L.A. County Court layoff story

As part of his deal with legislators, the governor agreed to restore $63 million to the courts in the budget that will take effect July 1– well short of the $100 million the Legislature wanted.

“We are glad that restoration of trial court funding has begun,” said L.A. County Superior Court presiding judge, David Wesley, in a statement. “But it is a shame that it is too little, too late, to stop the awful reductions in access to justice that state funding cuts have brought.”

Read the full story here.

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Lines Being Drawn As Courts Budget Deadline Nears

May 29, 2013 By
 
That loud grinding sound you hear from the north is the legislature crunching numbers, and it looks like “100 million” is a key figure for the final weeks of California’s budget battles. The legislature is proposing restoring $100 million to the judicial budget, earmarking most of that for trial courts and screaming for increased accountability from the Administrative Office of the Courts.
 
Los Angeles County workers have been stepping up in the controversy, and one Alameda court employee had comments that got quoted around the Internet, including in The Courthouse News budget coverage. The CN reported that “… Cheryl Clark, an Alameda court worker who drew some of loudest cheers, said, “Where has all this money gone? Why do we have to close at 2:30 [p.m.]? I’m with everyone else–accountability for the AOC. But if they’re not going to be accountable, give the money to the trial courts and let us be responsible for us. We can bypass all of that… the money is well needed [and] … if they’re not going to account for the money, it needs to be taken away from them and let the courts take care of it–each court equally.”
 
The Courthouse News offered a summary of the ongoing budget context: “The court workers’ comments were not lost on the lawmakers, who for years have been listening to allegations of misspending and waste, while local trial courts, starved for funds, have been shuttering courthouses and laying off staff.”
 
Read the story here. 
Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: , , , , ,

SDCBA asks San Diego attorneys to write to legislators to protest budget cuts

May 28, 2013 By

In response to the nearly 1.2 billion dollars of funding cuts to the California Judicial Branch over the last five years, San Diego County Bar Association President Marcella McLaughlin has called on San Diego attorneys to write to their legislators to prevent further cuts and restore funding to the courts, according to a report by BLAWGSD on May 24, 2013. A copy of the suggested letter is below and can be found online here:

 

Honorable __________

Member of the California Legislature

State Capitol

Sacramento, CA  95814

Dear Assemblymember/Senator:

As a constituent and an attorney I am gravely concerned about the massive underfunding our judicial system has experienced over the last five years.  While I understand our entire state has been reeling from the impact of the recession, our courts have taken a disproportionate share of the budget cuts.  The result has been a deconstruction of our justice system impacting access to justice for our citizens.

Courts throughout the state have closed their doors.  From Fresno to San Bernardino whole courthouses have been shuttered requiring litigants to travel, in some cases, well over an hour, to pay a simple traffic ticket.  More significantly public safety is at great risk as staff layoffs have occurred, hours of service have been reduced and thousands of cases are placed into fewer courts

The time is now to reinvest in courts.  Democracy stands in the balance.

 

 

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Advocates Building Case For Courts Funding Before June Deadlines

May 22, 2013 By

The state’s courts advocates have become increasingly vocal ahead of California’s June 15 budget deadline, and a recent commentary in The Record newspaper in Stockton laid out the most passionate argument: That justice is being denied those in poverty who most need access to the courts. In a commentary, two members of the SEIU local 1021 noted that “… justice is more than blind when those seeking it are invisible.”

 
Sonya Farnsworth, a Stockton courthouse clerk and president of the Local, and Jennifer Whitlock, a court reporter for the San Joanquin court and a member of the Local’s bargaining team, called for supporting state Rep. Cathleen Galgiani (D-Stockton) in efforts to restore court budget cuts. “We must help her to build a public outcry for funding that maintains the integrity of our justice system,” the duo wrote.
 

They list a few of the worst service cuts for Stockton-area citizens: “Small claims cases are no longer heard anywhere in San Joaquin County. You can no longer access court records online for family law, juvenile, guardianship, mental or criminal proceedings.” They are also among organized labor voices statewide starting to increase pressure on the budget process. Read the commentary here.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: , , , , ,
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