Judges

Chief Justice, Budget Plans Sketched In Report

January 7, 2014 By CCM Staff

One of those end-of-year “people to watch” features is hardly the stuff of investigative journalism, but a piece in The Tribune newspaper in San Luis Obispo outlines at least part of the upcoming judicial budget battles. The feature on California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye is mostly glowing, but is among the few to note that early budget drafts exclude court budget increases.

The story is also one of the few that notes a specific number that the chief justice will seek from the legislature, although it is an indirect reference: “With those priorities in mind, Cantil-Sakauye is making a serious push for increased funding in the next fiscal year: another $472 million, which is about how much has cumulatively been cut from the judiciary’s budget since 2008.”

That report adds that “… that could be an uphill battle: Assembly Speaker John A. Perez released a blueprint budget plan earlier this month that included no new appropriations for the judiciary…” Read more here.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: California Budget, california court cuts, California State Budget, Chief Justice, Judges, Legal news, Tani Cantil-Sakauye

U.S. Chief Justice Pleads For More Funding, Warns Of Constitutional Issues

January 6, 2014 By CCM Staff

The new year began with a New Year’s Eve warning from U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts that sounds a lot like a federal version of what California has been going through for several years. In effect, the Chief Justice is warning that court cutbacks are threatening access to justice, especially when it comes to public defenders and other rights guaranteed by the constitution.

This is not exactly new. Chief Justice Roberts has repeatedly warned of funding problems, especially those caused by the so-called sequestration cuts. But this warning comes a few weeks after two top officials from the nation’s Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts issued similar warnings.

As usual, the debate focuses on criminal courts but civil court delays were also noted. The Chief Justice wrote that “… in the civil and bankruptcy venues, further consequences would include commercial uncertainty, lost opportunities, and unvindicated rights. In the criminal venues, those consequences pose a genuine threat to public safety.”

Democrat Budget Blueprint Ignores Court Crisis

December 26, 2013 By CCM Staff

We’ve been noting that the early plans for our next state budget do not exactly place civil courts funding in the “crisis” category. Indeed, the courts in general are, at best, being placed on the back-burner – even the criminal courts which have a higher political profile than civil justice. The latest example is the recently released “budget blueprint” released by the Democratic Caucus of the state assembly.

In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times described the document thus: “Top Assembly Democrats have revealed what they’d like to do with billions of dollars in extra tax revenue that the state is projected to receive, and their top priorities were reassuring: expanding the reserve fund and paying down the debts that Sacramento accumulated over the last decade. Their budget blueprint also calls for a lot of new spending on education and anti-poverty programs, however.”

The most passionate appeal for any justice-related funding in the “blueprint” comes amid plans to reduce spending on prison housing. There, the “collaborative justice” efforts get some attention, but that’s hardly noting a billion dollars of court cuts over the past five years. Certainly, most of the issues getting attention are worthy – yet you have to wonder how long we can expect courthouse-related labor unions and others to sit by while the Democrats ignore their concerns.

Read the Times editorial here.

Find the Blueprint here.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: California, California Budget, california court cuts, california courts, California Democrats, California State Budget, court rationing, Democrats, Gov. Jerry Brown, Judges, justice denied, Justice Rationing

Fresno: Union Blasts Court-Linked Supervisor Pay Hike

December 3, 2013 By CCM Staff

In Fresno County, the same judicial pay increase that raised eyebrows statewide is giving county supervisors more money. That pay hike comes after the supes took a hard line on rank-and-file salaries, and it happens because the county leaders years ago tied their salaries to judicial pay.

Last week, the Judicial Council of California and the state Judges Association sent out a memo to announce a 1.4% judicial pay increase. That same memo noted that a 4.5 percent hike is expected in the next year or so.

The Fresno supervisor raise brought sharp comment from a labor group, with the Fresno Bee newspaper quoting Alysia Bonner, a county employee and Region 4 vice president for SEIU Local 521: “It’s just incredible that they’d take another raise before they’d invest in Fresno… they constantly talk about cutting services and tightening belts, but they don’t have any trouble taking more money for doing less. They are part-time workers. The rest of us work for a living.” The union represents more than 4,000 county workers.

Read the Fresno Bee story by John Ellis here.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: California Budget, california court cuts, court reporters, inequality, Judges, pay raises, SEIU, unions

Interpreter Dispute: Hundreds Protest Across 7 Counties

November 22, 2013 By CCM Staff

More than 900 interpreters across seven Central California counties picketed this week to raise awareness about ongoing negotiations between the union for interpreters and the Administrative Office of the Courts, the management arm of the state judicial system, according to various media reports.

While gone more than a half-decade without a pay raise is noted, the core of the issue is another “outsourcing” cost-cutting plan. The idea is to use “centralized” remote video interpreting. This would often replace humans who make $35 per hour. They are paid by the state, but via the court system. The Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper explained that “… video remote interpreting uses video cameras, computers and an interpreter in a remote location to translate rather than having a live interpreter in court.” The paper cited a union spokesperson explaining that “… there is concern from interpreters that the video service would violate the right to due process and compromise attorney client privilege.”

The talks continue today (Friday, Nov. 22) and there’s no speculation yet if other unions might join in any further actions. Read the Sentinel story here.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: ADA, Americans with Disabilities Act, California, California Budget, california court cuts, disabilities, ELL, immigrants, interpreter, Judges, minorities

Judicial Friction Story in Sacramento Bee

November 21, 2013 By CCM Staff

Dan Walters, who covers courts for the Sacramento Bee, has an interesting background story about continuing friction in the California judiciary. He offers a good history of the major players, writing that “… when Tani Cantil-Sakauye became California’s chief justice nearly three years ago, she inherited a nasty judicial squabble from her polarizing predecessor, Ron George.”

Walters reminds us that “… George had persuaded the Legislature to have the state assume financial and operational control of what had been a locally managed court system, thus making him the boss of an immense state agency [and] many local judges resented what they saw as George’s autocratic style of governance through a State Judicial Council and an Administrative Office of the Courts that he controlled, dubbing him “King George.”

But the reporter, who has the personal background to back his opinion, also says that “… resentments flared into open political warfare with the creation of the anti-George Alliance of California Judges, and the infighting intensified when a chronic state budget crisis squeezed the courts.” It’s a timely story making the rounds as the Office of Courts considers opening some of its committee meetings, where most of the actual decisions are made. Read it here.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: California, California Budget, california court cuts, california courts, California State Budget, Judges, justice, justice denied

Heads Up: New Court Committees Target Budget, Access

November 20, 2013 By CCM Staff

While the debate over public access to court-management committee meetings gathers steam (see immediate previous post), anyone wondering about the significance of those groups need only look a bit deeper into new committees being formed on hot-button issues – like budget and access. Given that the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) is sometimes blamed for “rubber stamping” committee work, a skeptic might suggest that pushing debate into committee or even sub-committee meetings effectively removes discussion from citizen oversight.

The budget committee would, among other things, “… report to the council on AOC contracts that meet established criteria to ensure that the contracts are in support of judicial branch policy” and “… review proposed updates and revisions to the Judicial Branch Contracting Manual.” For a system facing debate over how much work can be farmed out to private contractors, as opposed to re-hiring employees, that’s an important discussion.

Another group, actually a sub-group of a committee and led by a “committee co-chair” will tackle “… physical, programmatic, and language access; fairness in the courts; and diversity in the judicial branch.” Given that legal action against the Los Angeles Superior Court reorganization focuses on physical and other access issues, that’s another great debate.

And of course, all this helps create context for the 2014 state budget battle. Read between the lines at the State website.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: Administrative Office of the Courts, California, California Budget, California Court budget, california court cuts, california courts, civil court, court rationing, Judges

Judicial Council ‘Open Meetings’ Plan Draws Complaints

November 19, 2013 By CCM Staff

It turns out that good news about open committee meetings at the California Judicial Council comes with at least 17 strings attached. That’s how many exceptions there are, including for issues like “consideration of raw data,” that would evade public eyes whenever the judges like.

Reporters and newspaper advocates are among those commenting on the rules, with court officials stressing that this is just an early draft. Jim Ewert, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, told The Courthouse News that “… this is really open to wide discretion by whoever is on the committee… the exemptions they have created are very, very broad.”

The report also notes that “… the Judicial Council has a history of making decisions in closed-door committees followed by open Judicial Council sessions where the committee decisions are unanimously approved with little or no debate. Trial judges have said the council simply ‘rubber stamps’ the decisions made secretly by the committees.”

There’s more from Court House News here.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: accountability, California Budget, california court cuts, court rationing, Judges, judicial council, oversight, transparency

2014 L.A.S.C. Elections Featuring D.A. Hopefuls

November 18, 2013 By CCM Staff

It seems another member of the District Attorney team might be headed to the bench, or at least to the ballot. The MetNews is reporting that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Joseph E. DiLoreto has indicated that he will not seek reelection, and has endorsed Deputy District Attorney Christopher J. Frisco to fill his upcoming vacancy.

In the L.A. courts community, such an “endorsement” can be a virtual hand-off, but this year some groups are whispering about breaking with tradition and pushing for new judicial blood. Until that happens, we can expect candidates to continue to announce in order to let potential opponents know they have the “insider” status. The MetNews, which BTW is the leader in court election coverage by a long shot, notes that Frisco’s “… campaign advisor and treasurer is David L. Gould, a consultant who is also advising other judicial aspirants in the District Attorney’s Office, including Andrew Cooper, Alison Matsumoto Estrada, Donna Hollingsworth Armstrong, and Stacy Okun-Wiese.”

For more about the election, and other candidates, check out the report here.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: California, california court cuts, california courts, campaigns, civil court, elections, Judges, judicial elections

2014 Judicial Election Cycle Gets Started

November 15, 2013 By CCM Staff

We don’t yet know how many Los Angeles Superior Court judgeships will be up for election next year, but at least four candidates are hoping to take the familiar path from the District Attorney office to the bench. From various reports and announcements, they include Alison Matsumoto Estrada, Stacy Okun-Wiese, Donna Hollingsworth Armstrong and Andrew Cooper.

Typically, judicial careers in L.A. Superior Court begin with an appointment by the governor and few judges face contested elections. Some critics have suggested this is because the “culture” is that anyone challenging a seated judge can face negative reactions in court, both from that judge and even others. The early announcements for next year’s race suggest a more robust election cycle, and budget challenges are already a top issue.

Read about Andrew Cooper at MetNews here and about the other three candidates and find some campaign links here.

Filed Under: Community, Courts Budget Tagged With: California, California Budget, california court cuts, california courts, California State Budget, campaign finance, elections, Judges, judicial elections, justice, Legal news