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Los Angeles to Close 557 Courtrooms
The Recorder
July 15, 2009
Downtown Los Angeles.
Jason Doiy / The Recorder
Two trial courts will close most of their courtrooms and furlough staff Wednesday, offering California a glimpse of the once-a-month closures expected to affect courtrooms statewide later this summer.
Leaders of the Los Angeles and Mendocino, Calif., superior courts decided they could no longer wait for a coordinated, statewide closure plan to emerge from the mire of legislative budget negotiations. Instead, they'll shutter hundreds of courtrooms today, keeping a relative few open to handle emergency business.
Los Angeles County Superior Court officials expected to have just 43 of 600 courtrooms open countywide to process restraining orders, in-custody arraignments, juvenile dependency cases and other time-sensitive matters. Ninety-three percent of the court's 5,000 employees will be furloughed, spokeswoman Mary Hearn said.
"We're hoping that everyone's got the word that we're going to have limited services," she said.
The closures have left attorneys like those at the Children's Law Center scrambling. Wednesday is typically the busiest day of the week for the agency that represents more than 20,000 Los Angeles County children in dependency court. Cases brought into the foster care system on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday must be filed in court by the following Wednesday to meet a three-day statutory deadline.
Just two of 20 dependency courts are expected to be operating in Los Angeles on Wednesday. On top of that, the Children's Law Center, faced with its own $1.2 million budget cut, will have only a skeleton crew of 20 attorneys working, said Executive Director Leslie Starr Heimov. Other attorneys and staff will be taking a furlough day, she said.
The Los Angeles court will continue to close courtrooms on the third Wednesday of each month, a move aimed at saving $18 million over the next fiscal year. The judicial branch as a whole is expected to save $102 million through monthly closures in all 58 counties, but that estimate relied on a July 15 start date. With no budget action by the Legislature, however, judicial leaders now hope statewide court closures can begin on Aug. 19.
The branch is relying on worker furloughs and increases in court reporter and security fees, and tapping various reserve funds, to absorb a $393 million budget hit from the state.
Although many courtrooms will be closed, Los Angeles courthouse doors will remain open, in part so attorneys can file papers. The closure is not considered a court holiday, and filings dropped off by 4:30 p.m. will receive filing stamps, Hearn said.
Managers will be stationed at courthouses to assist would-be court users, Hearn said. Some furloughed workers will be there, too, passing out leaflets that urge the public to pressure court leaders to negotiate with labor groups on the closures' effects, said Michael Soller, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union Local 721.
"The concern is, the court hasn't spelled out exactly what this is going to mean," Soller said. "Are there going to be longer lines next week because of the closures? And how's the court going to deal with that?"
While rank-and-file clerks, court reporters and assistants are furloughed, bailiffs will not be. Court leaders have said they cannot renegotiate the current security contract with the L.A. sheriff. So deputies working as bailiffs will either be redeployed to other sites or rearrange their work schedules to take today off, said sheriff's department spokesman Steve Whitmore.
Judges and court commissioners are also expected to work Wednesday, Hearn said. Many Los Angeles judges have said that they will give up a day's pay to show solidarity with court workers. But the Administrative Office of the Courts has advised judges to delay doing so until lawmakers approve legislation that would shield their future pensions from reductions tied to the temporary pay givebacks.
In Mendocino County, courtrooms in Willits and Fort Bragg will be closed Wednesday. One courtroom in Ukiah will stay open a half-day to hear "priority" criminal matters between 8:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. and urgent civil matters from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
Other courts have also announced pending closures to deal with budget cutbacks.
• San Francisco Superior Court has announced that it will start closing courtrooms and furloughing employees one day a month on Aug. 19, no matter what the state does. So has the Orange County Superior Court.
• In Stanislaus County, the superior court will close its Turlock courthouse indefinitely on Oct. 2. Court employees will be taking 13 furlough days.
• San Bernardino County Superior Court will operate its Big Bear and Needles courthouses only for the first week of every month starting Sept. 8. More pressing matters will be sent to urban courthouses that, for some communities, are located more than 100 miles away.
