Legal News

Furloughs and shortened hours predicted for California courts

By Richard Binder

In California's budget crisis, the nation's largest state judiciary will be hit by severe budget shortages that may prompt shortened court hours, furloughed employees, loss of 50 new judgeships and less money for state-funded lawyers.

Even before the current budget crisis, Riverside County near Los Angeles, had too few judges to handle its criminal caseload and imposed a moratorium on civil trials.

That ended with the sending of a statewide judicial swat team to pick up the slack, but the problem could resurface there and in other counties.

The state's trial courts, with more than 1,600 judges, will face nearly $250 million in cuts from spending based on reduced allocations for lawyers appointed to represent dependent children, less money to cover increased pay and health expenses, higher rents and increased costs for security officers.

Read the full story at NLJ.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on February 26, 2009 (boomark / email).