It won’t be the worst job in town. But catastrophic budget cuts promise to make the San Francisco bench a less appealing perch, at least for some sitting judges and recruits.
Under the plan outlined by Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein, most of the city’s civil courtrooms will close and judges will have to share courtrooms and court staff. Instead of presiding over complex business cases or cutting-edge motions, many experienced judges will handle the more routine work of the commissioners the court plans to lay off. There’s even talk of them pecking out orders and handling other clerical tasks to take up the slack should the court follow through on plans to cut 200 employees.
