THE COURT CONSOLIDATION PLAN AND HOW IT WILL AFFECT VIRTUALLY EVERYONE

Closures

As many already know, ten courthouses have already closed or will be closing soon.  It's strange to think that these courthouses that so many of us have worked, volunteered, appeared, argued, or tried cases in will soon be closed indefinitely.  San Pedro courthouse is closing and transferring all cases to Long Beach.  Pasadena is closing and transferring to either Glendale or Burbank. Also in the south, Huntington Park, Avalon (Catalina Island), Whittier and Pomona are also shutting down; in the west, Beverly Hills, West LA and Malibu courthouses will be closed.  I'm planning a trip to Catalina myself to see the courthouse before it shuts its doors, since I not only have never seen it, I didn't even know they had one.  (Am I indirectly approving of this court closure, if I admit I didn't know it existed?)

Hubs

Even plaintiffs who are lucky enough to still have their local courthouse may not be able to file their case there if it involves certain types of disputes.  Collections, evictions, small claims, limited civil cases, and personal injury will all be handled by specialized hubs.  Plaintiffs will need to pay close attention to new filing venues if they have any of these types of cases.

ALL personal injury cases go to Stanley Mosk now - that means medical malpractice, premises or product liability, motor vehicle cases, wrongful death, etc.  It seems that people who are injured in Torrance will have to travel 20 miles to court; people injured in Chatsworth, over 30 miles; people injured in Lancaster, almost 70.

Limited civil collections go to either Chatsworth or Norwalk courthouses now.  Probate cases must be filed in either Stanley Mosk or Lancaster.  Small claims are now either in Stanley Mosk, Alhambra, Lancaster, Downey, Inglewood, and Van Nuys.  Evictions cases go to either Stanley Mosk, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Long Beach, and Lancaster.

Other Cuts

In my opinion, one of the most difficult impacts to deal with for attorneys is the reduction in court reporters.  Private court reporter fees are usually at least in the $350 range, possibly longer if they have to wait around beyond the half-day mark.  But without a court reporter, you run the risk that the judge or opposing counsel will say something important that you may need to cite later.  Agreements or concessions may be made in open court that help your case; judges sometimes give you helpful rulings that the other side may then attempt to walk back or twist; risking being unable to prove later that those statements were actually made is just not good practice.  I've had more than one court ruling where the attorneys could not agree on just what the judge had actually ordered and had to order the transcript to settle the matter.  One of my bigger cases, a theft of trade secrets case, literally turned on the judge having agreed with us by saying "All right - that," at a hearing on a motion to compel production of all the defendant's computers and electronic documents.  We had to highlight the portion of the transcript that opposing counsel (supposedly) didn't recall, and force them to admit it had happened.  If we hadn't had a court reporter, we wouldn't have had a transcript, and we would never have gotten unbelievably damning evidence from the defendant's computers, and that case would probably still be being litigated today.

I've also noticed that fewer clerks are manning the filing windows.  This means more wait time in line for messengers and other persons filing documents with the court.  The rules also don't allow you to file more than three documents at a time, which usually is not a problem for an attorney.  However, it is a big problem for a messenger who's waiting in line to file 10, 15, 20 documents at a time.  Messenger services are already not very profitable for attorney service companies that make their real money serving process.  If a messenger has to wait in an even slower moving line an extra time for every three documents, some companies may exit the court filings business entirely and those that remain could raise their prices, increasing the cost of legal services for clients, who usually pay filing costs.

Until next time, everyone!