I am on my first vacation in a long time and received from a friend an electronic copy of The Recorder‘s caricature of me seeking to smash the San Francisco Superior Court piggy bank so as to fund civil court operations (Viewpoint, Aug. 15). I have to say, while the likeness of me was unflattering (I don’t have such a pronounced snarl), the cartoon expresses my dedication to keeping San Francisco Superior Court open by any means possible, including spending down reserves. Breaking the bank in pursuit of justice is nothing new to me.
There are more than $4.6 million good reasons to keep our civil courts open. I can’t think of one good reason for closing them when money exists to provide access to justice. I have spent a significant part of the past three years in Sacramento working with the current and past chief justices, local judges, the Administrative Office of the Courts, the state Legislature and my colleagues within the plaintiff and defense bars learning about court finance and legislative funding/defunding of our judiciary. I have become, by necessity, a court budget wonk.
