Few have ever claimed that America’s court system is flawless, but it certainly faces more obstacles in certain cities. Los Angeles knows that better than most, thanks to a massive shutdown after the Great Recession that led to the closing of 10 county courthouses and 56 courtrooms, in addition to 25 percent of staff and court reporters. These closures and dismissals are having serious impacts on the city’s judicial system, even four years later.
Private vs. Public
The public court system in Los Angeles is severely backlogged, leaving the public forum as a slow and inefficient way to resolve legal matters. In a clear example of the power of wealth, many people in Los Angeles are hiring adjudicators to oversee private hearings and speed things up. However, this creates a two-tiered judicial system that benefits the rich and leaves the less advantaged public to deal with the backlog.
Organizational Chaos
With so many local courthouses closed, attorneys and litigants alike are struggling with long commutes to the few that remain open. Furthermore, simple organizational concepts are causing trouble, like trial judges in civil cases losing the power to schedule mandatory settlement conferences to a small selection of judges. Even the Superior Court lost its strong mediation program.
The Numbers
Across the state of California, it is estimated that courts are underfunded by a whopping $400 million. The Superior Court is only at 70 percent of what it needs to be, forcing the number of trials heard in a year’s time from 478 to 400. Courtrooms are simply backed up and consistently overdrawn. More than 30,000 personal injury cases at any given time are waiting for assignment, forcing many cases to wait years before being heard.
Overall, these problems are becoming compounded as attorneys feel hesitant to take cost-intensive public interest cases like consumer, environmental, and civil rights claims, since they are often contingent-fee cases that cost a great deal up front with no promise of an outcome for many months or years.
