J.A.I.L. News
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Judicial
Accountability
Initiative
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Los Angeles,
CA
December 22,
2008
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America Facing a Judicial Meltdown
Supreme Chief Justice John Broderick of New Hampshire says, "I've never felt as insecure about the state courts in terms of operations and resources as I do now." "The court process is breaking down," says David Slawsky. "This is the worst I've ever seen it," says John Safford.
The United States, the prison capitol of the world, may have to cut back on its prison growth industry.
-Ron Branson
~ ~ ~
Los Angeles Times
Even jury hiring is frozen
To cut costs, New Hampshire courts won't hold criminal or civil jury trials for a month. At least 19 other states have slashed court budgets and other state services.
By Bob Drogin
December 22, 2008
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-courts22-2008dec22,0,387609.story
Reporting from
Brentwood, N.H. -- Come February, the red-brick Rockingham County Courthouse,
one of New Hampshire's busiest, will arraign criminal suspects, process legal
motions and otherwise deal with murders, mayhem and contract disputes. What it
won't do is hold jury trials.
The economic storm has come to this:
Justice is being delayed or disrupted in state courtrooms across the
country.
Full coverage: Financial crisis
Financially strapped
New Hampshire has become a poster child for the problem. Among other
cost-cutting measures, state courts will halt for a month all civil and criminal
jury trials early next year to save $73,000 in jurors' per diems. Officials warn
they may add another four-week suspension.
"It brings our system almost
to a screeching halt," said county prosecutor James M. Reams. His aides are
scrambling to reschedule 77 criminal trials that were on the February
docket.
"All the effort to subpoena witnesses and prepare for those
trials is right out the window," Reams said, frustration in his voice.
"Internally, it's a monumental waste of time. We'll have to redo
everything."
At least 19 other
states, including California, have slashed court budgets and other government
services as their economies have tanked, said Daniel Hall, vice president of the
National Center for State Courts, a nonprofit in Williamsburg,
Va.
"Courts are there to provide a fair and impartial resolution of
disputes," Hall said. "When you start affecting that, you affect who we
are."
California cut its judicial branch budget by more than $200
million, or about 10%, in the current fiscal year, and further reductions are
almost certain as the state grapples with a projected $40-billion deficit. A
Republican proposal unveiled last week, for example, would trim a further $205
million from the judiciary.
H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger's finance department, said it was "not yet clear" whether the
judiciary would be granted an exemption to the governor's order to reduce state
payrolls by 10% through layoffs and unpaid furloughs.
Criminal defendants
have a constitutional right to a speedy trial. Judges usually give such trials
priority over civil cases involving broken sidewalks, medical malpractice and
the like.
As a result, civil litigation and family law cases are bearing
the brunt of the disruptions. And cascading bankruptcies, foreclosures and
business disputes have only increased the backlog.
After two rounds of
budget cuts in Florida, courts have laid off 280 clerks, lawyers and other staff
members, and cut funding for a judges' unit that helps resolve civil disputes.
State legislators meeting next month are expected to demand more spending
cuts.
An additional 10% reduction would mean "all civil cases in the
state of Florida would virtually be suspended," Belvin Perry Jr., chief judge of
Florida's 9th Judicial Circuit and chairman of a trial court budget commission,
warned a legislative committee in Tallahassee this month.
In Vermont,
state Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul L. Reiber recently proposed closing as
many as seven county courts, as well as laying off employees, to help ease a
budget deficit. The state already shuts district and family courts half a day
each week to save money.
"None of our choices are good," Reiber conceded
in a memo to court employees.
With rising joblessness and falling
revenues, New Hampshire projects a budget deficit this year of $250 million. The
crisis has forced Gov. John Lynch to seek spending cuts across state government,
including the judicial system.
John T. Broderick, chief justice of the
state Supreme Court, has carved $2.7 million from the judicial budget. In
addition to the one-month halt in jury trials and trimming back courtroom
security, seven of the state's 59 judgeships will be left vacant through June,
when the fiscal year ends. Three of the empty slots are in trial courts.
Worse, Broderick said, he may need to suspend jury trials for another
month, and leave open a Supreme Court slot after one of the five justices
retires in February. It is the state's only appellate court.
"In my 36
years here as a lawyer and judge, I've never felt as insecure about the state
courts in terms of operations and resources as I do now," Broderick
said.
Robert J. Lynn, chief justice of the superior courts, which conduct
all New Hampshire jury trials, said he fears the delays inevitably will cause
damage. "There is some element of 'justice delayed, justice denied,' no doubt
about it," he said.
Christopher Keating,
executive director of the New Hampshire Public Defender program, said his chief
concern now is "people in custody who will endure delays in getting their day in
court."
The state Supreme Court threw out two criminal cases this year
because trials did not begin within six months of arraignment, the legal limit.
Prosecutors fear more cases may be dismissed.
Delays in jury
trials in 2001 and 2002, during a previous budget crisis, caused less disruption
because they involved fewer cases, said John Safford, Superior Court clerk in
the Hillsborough County district that includes Manchester, the largest city.
This time, he needs to reschedule up to 100 trials.
"I've been
here 30 years," he said. "This is the worst I've ever seen
it."
The delays may
encourage some defendants to seek plea deals, or litigants to settle out of
court.
Some counties are advocating out-of-court mediation and conflict
resolution.
But other cases may face new hurdles as time passes.
"Witnesses die, memories fade; things happen when trials are delayed,"
said John Hutson, dean of Franklin Pierce Law Center, the state's only law
school. "Then you'll get a bow wave of cases, so they pile up the next month and
it's hard to catch up."
The slowdown has unnerved many residents in the
state, where granite-hewn courthouses often anchor Colonial-era town squares.
"You're talking about erosion of our fundamental civic fabric," said
Ellen J. Shemitz, executive director of the New Hampshire Assn. for Justice,
which represents civil trial attorneys.
James J. Tenn Jr., incoming
president of the state's bar association, said that as the crisis has grown, New
Hampshire courts have been slow to process orders, respond to lawyers' requests
and "do the daily work."
"We've just seen delay after delay after
delay," said David Slawsky, a civil lawyer in Manchester. "The court process is
breaking down."
Dennis Ducharme, a Manchester attorney, received
cancellation notices last week for four personal injury cases scheduled for
trial next year. He worries that a delay of six months, perhaps longer, will
make witnesses less willing to testify.
"The longer you drag it out, the
more reluctant people become to cooperate," he said.
In Newport, in the
rural west, lawyer Lisa Wellman-Ally has seen a property rights trial postponed
four times. Each time, she has prepared 100 exhibits, re-subpoenaed witnesses,
refreshed her arguments and billed her client for the time.
"Then we
would get bounced again," she said.
No new trial date has been
scheduled.
bob.drogin@latimes.com
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