Litigation

Federal Judiciary Eyes Belt-Tightening

By Peter Hardin

If the federal government is forced to shut down as a result of a budget impasse in Congress, the federal judiciary has plans for dealing with it.

A memo from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts was obtained by the Blog of Legal Times, and the memo said guidance on operating during such a shutdown would be issued soon.

Meanwhile, the memo by James Duff, director of the Administrative Office, discussed belt-tightening steps in the face of possible funding cuts:

“With all of this uncertainty and out of an abundance of caution, we are urging chief judges and court unit executives to institute immediately a hiring freeze for all but the most critical vacancies until a final FY 2011 spending bill is enacted.  We also urge you to defer cash awards and discretionary step increases and to limit non-salary spending to essential expenditures only.

“We believe your adoption of these measures will better position the Judiciary in the event final FY 2011 funding levels necessitate sharp reductions to court allotments below the interim financial plan.”

Full post as published by The Gavel on February 24, 2011 (boomark / email).