L.A. County Superior Court to lay off 329 staffers April 1

In the first of a series of projected cuts, the Los Angeles County Superior Court will lay off 329 staff members on April 1, court officials have announced.

“Given the size of the budget cuts we have already experienced, we anticipate hundreds more layoffs to follow,” Superior Court Executive Officer John A. Clarke wrote Friday in a memo to staff.

Officials are planning to lay off an additional 500 employees in September and 530 in fall 2011, Clarke wrote. Court leaders have long warned of looming staff cuts and courtroom closures due to budget shortfalls.

Presiding Judge Charles “Tim” McCoy has said he is looking at plans to eliminate as many as 1,800 jobs and close up to 180 courtrooms to make ends meet. Court spokeswoman Vania Stuelp said the cuts will be “all across the board,” but it had not been determined whether courtrooms will be closed at the time of the layoffs.

Notices will be sent out March 16, she said.

“The most junior employees are going to be the first to go,” she said.

-- Victoria Kim

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Comments

[Evad the Slayer]

Just how in the hay many people work for the LA Superior Court? A lot of these employees must be doing NOTHING all day long. Good riddance. Way, way too many employees work for the "government" producing zero, nil, zilch that contributes to our economy. Need to take a HUGE hatchet, ax, buzzsaw to the rest of the state government, beginning with all the flunkies serving the legislators. Boy, if "government" was a for profit enterprise, it would be out of business.

[mikeohara]

LA Superior Court is bloated and could do the same job with one-third less staff. Ten percent of the employees do most of the work--without the attitude of the remainder.

[Way too much Alibling]

If any lay-off are to occur at the County level, let's first look at the Supervisors and their staffs. I am sure there are excess staff members... Let's cut the non-essential staffers first. The Courts are making a difference.
County supervisor staffers first-come on supervisors set an example for the thousands of County employees.
You should have years ago, dealt with the poor and non performing employees in your system, but you chose to sit on your butts and allowed facilities like "King" go to hell and back. Where are your real leadership skills???
Now, you want to first cut the courts-no, at least once again they are making a difference in the county.

[cj3209]

Can someone explain what the IMPACT is for the County? Please?

[Sputnik2]

A truly sad thing, but if the money isn't there, it is what it is. The different government units need to live with the budgets, just like the private citizen must.Lost my job 2 years ago in the automotive industry, and gee whiz, life goes on. Time to suck it up buttercup and move on as best you can. Have as great a day as possible, and remember, there is always someone worse off than you.

[joel]

do you know how much LONGER those lines are gonna get even though the workers are mean and have serious attitudes, oh and we can add NEPOTISM to the reasons of how they got their jobs and you know what I am talking about

[Joe]

Have you ever dealt with these court employees? Rude attitudes! No matter how polite or courteous one could be toward them they always acted like you were causing an imposition. Finally justice is served in LA Superior Court.

[kuruc]

cout staff should be out on the streets,.....protesting like the "students" last week.

[markiejoe]

And when courts get backed up and accused criminals remain free pending trials that are delayed longer and longer, all the taxpayers in L.A. will gripe about the inept justice system letting criminals roam the streets.

I have no sympathy for the cheap and delusional taxpayers of L.A., Or the rest of California for that matter, who are not willing to pay for an adequate criminal justice system in a state with a population larger than the entire country of Canada.

[George]

It took a Los Angeles Superior Court judge nearly 60 days to find me Not Guilty of a traffic infraction that I disputed with a Trial by Declaration. The document stated that I "should" receive a refund of my $436 bail within 60 days.

93 days from the date that the judge ordered my bail refunded, court personnel mailed the check.

In short, it was over 5 months that the court held my sorely-needed money, despite the fact that I was not guilty of anything.

If this is the sort of "service" one gets when the court is fully staffed, what can we expect after the layoffs?

I spoke recently to a law student about my case. She replied,

"The American justice system is simply not fair, and if you don't believe it, consider this: A few years ago, a former TV star was held in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT for MONTHS before his trial and he suffered immeasurably as a result, yet he was eventually found NOT GUILTY of the charge against him. In addition, he spent thousands of dollars on his defense. He was not compensated in any way for his suffering and his costs.

"Another example: In America, if you choose to sell your house to successfully defend yourself, you can end up living on the street despite the fact that you are eventually found NOT GUILTY of anything. That is justice, American style."

[elovediddydo]

I have mixed feelings, my agency is an offspring of the LA Superior Courts...I feel that all public agencies have lots of jobs that they can cut, unfortunately who do the unemployed then turn too. Reading the comments below, there are obviously some jaded folks, I get it. I was on a jury recently and kept saying "I want one of those jobs". So much for future planning. I think they should fire or "lay off" the BOS staff, since the BOS thinks they have it all sewed up, talk about people who don't do anything and get paid big bucks. Shame on California for putting their citizens in such a position, what a winner for a governor that the republicans and movie nuts voted for, and remember he vetoed Gov. Gray out because of the finanical problems we have. That mayor or Los Angeles, too busy dating news women to see his city is going in the toilet. Fire him and his staff too, then we will see some savings for the city, county and state as a whole.

[Chuck]

Does this mean the court system will just freeze up entirely? It takes months just to process a traffic ticket these days, and you could serve an entire murder sentence in holding before you ever go to trial. Why not just close it and call it a day?

[Bart Anderson]

This state is going to hell in a hand basket...it all traces back to Prop. 13 when the large commercial property owners got massive property tax breaks and it screwed up the entire system. Don't believe me...look at the schools, look at the roads, look at the libraries that are closing, look at the decaying infrastructure. What the hell, let's elect another celebrity to be governor with his kids in private schools, trying to close all the state parks while he flies in his private jet to ski in Vale.

[joemamabush]

This will impact local business in the area. If we would cut the judges pay and the staffers pay and all others in our court system everyone could work. But they will not take a cut in pay. So let them self destruct. What if the courts cut the fines for tickets? They would not do that.

[michelle]

Markiejoe, you just hit the nail on the head!

[james andrews]

I hope they are also laying off the 360 judges that use those 180 courtrooms. We know they don't work 5 days a week. I also would like LA County to quit adding extra salary to the state pay for these judges. If the state can't pay them enough why should LA County add to it?

[August]

Throw them all in prison for the HORRIFYING TORTURE they've committed on all those innocent framed victims!

[George]

"This state is going to hell in a hand basket...it all traces back to Prop. 13 when the large commercial property owners got massive property tax breaks and it screwed up the entire system."--Bart Anderson

Others would say California's principal problem is that, in an effort to garner the support of public employee unions for their re-elections, our politicians have given away the store (taxpayer money).

Does a former chief of the LAPD really deserve a pension of $270,000/year in addition to a salary of $170,000 as a member of the Los Angeles City Council?

Do current members of the Los Angeles Fire Department really deserve "average compensation and overtime of $117,000"?

Does a nurse working for the prison system really deserve a salary of $92,000 plus overtime of $170,000?

Do the members of the Board of Supervisors deserve compensation that with salaries and benefits can reach $185,232 a year?

Do government employees really deserve a defined-benefit pension system that will pay them for the rest of their lives, while most in the private sector get no such thing? According to many, the amount to be spent on public employee pensions is destined to grow so large that there will be few if any funds for any other obligations.

The blame for this lies solely with politicians who would say and do nothing to garner the support of public-employee unions.

[dpo 10]

they have a lot of dead weight!

[Joe Boland]

Good , Now about 50,000 state employees need to go

[Jazy]

A $125 seatbelt ticket has turned into $850 because I failed to appear in court. Where do they get these extreme numbers from? O I forgot they have to make money so they can pay the extreme salraies all those lazy court employees make.

[Carol]

Cameras in the court rooms would ensure efficiency which is not nor has been there.

Anyone else notice how the courts refuse this?

[Carol]

I recall reading of a case where a woman refused to leave a hospital because she "had no where to go."

The hospital proved she owned two homes which she had transferred to her daughter in an attempt to keep them from being found.

The woman ran up a one million dollar in patient bill and expected the hospital to let her remain. They had to feed her, bathe her, babysit her. She didn't want to be transferred to a nursing home. That was her game.

The Judge allowed that to go on for over a year. THAT is an example of California judicial expertise.

When the smoke cleared, the hospital got the two homes of the woman and sold them to cover their losss. But the hospital still lost about $400,000 as there was no more to seize from the woman's ownings.

Who won? The court system and the judge. They had their jobs. Everyone else lost time and money. Then the judge retired on full pension.

True story. Google it. "CA Woman Refuses to Leave Hospital."

[John]

Legalize, Regulate and Tax Marijuana, and keep this public health issue out of the court.

Let the courts focus on Criminal and Civil problems that actually HARM the residents of California.