Legal News

The Recession and the Courts: Spotlight On Georgia

By Ashby Jones

With each passing day, it seems, as the country’s economic woes continue, we hear another tale of how underfunding is affecting our nation’s courts. We don’t blog on all of these stories, but the Paulo Prada and Corey Dade authored one in Tuesday’s WSJ that we feel is worthy of a little LB attention.

Prada and Dade focused their sights on the state of Georgia. The state court system, which handles more than 150,000 cases a year, had to slash spending by almost 15% in the past fiscal year, and more cuts loom. The state’s budget shortfall widened to $3.7 billion over the past 18 months.

Georgia judges are worried the system could stall. “We take an oath to uphold the laws and for people to have access to a judiciary,” state Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein said in an interview. The cutbacks, she said, “are doing real harm to the system.” She said one state judge complained to her recently that it currently takes 60 days to hold a temporary hearing for a case such as family custody, which once took a few weeks at most.

Shortfalls in public finances are squeezing judiciaries nationwide. According to a July survey by the Washington-based National Center for State Courts, at least 28 state court systems have imposed hiring freezes, 13 have frozen salaries and seven have planned or imposed salary reductions. Six states have furloughed court staff and six have reduced court hours, according to the center, which tracks state court data and issues.

But Georgia’s situation appears particularly severe. Because schedules and staffing have been reduced so aggressively, judges and attorneys say, the caseload appears to be backing up more quickly than in other states.

Statewide, the crunch is affecting even the highest courts. Though state law forbids the executive branch from cutting judges’ salaries, the seven justices of the state Supreme Court last week volunteered to forgo three days of pay. The decision, the justices said, was a show of unity with other state-funded employees who have been ordered by Gov. Sonny Perdue to accept a three-day furlough by the end of the year.

Despite the uproar among judges, Perdue has said the state must meet its constitutional obligation to a balanced budget and that the judiciary must accept its share of the burden. “Is the judiciary more important than education? More important than health care?” asked Bert Brantley, Perdue’s spokesman. “Every piece of government believes its spending is the most important, but clearly when you’re governor you have to look at the state’s overall responsibilities.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on September 08, 2009 (boomark / email).