FOCUS & FORUM  •  Sep. 11, 2007
Judicial Drought Has Created a Third World Legal System in Riverside County

FORUM COLUMN

By David T. Bristow

      Is it possible that we are witnessing the death of the judicial branch?
      Certainly there is no more basic tenant in our system of government than the concept of its three branches: executive, legislative and judicial. This noble triangle of equals, each playing a crucial, complementary role has borne the weight of our democracy effortlessly since its inception. To alter it would threaten the very foundations of American government. Yet, as unimaginable as it may seem, that is precisely what is happening in Riverside County, where our judicial branch has begun to falter.
      At present, the courts of our county have all but ceased conducting civil jury trials. The judges in our historic civil courthouse (which, ironically, graces our county seal) have been conscripted to try criminal cases in an effort to reduce a massive backlog. Because of a heretofore obscure California penal statute, which mandates that criminal cases receive priority over civil matters, our entire countywide justice system has been reconfigured to focus nearly exclusively on trying criminal cases.
      This crisis is so dire that the Administrative Office of the Courts, under the guidance of California Chief Justice Ronald George, has taken the extraordinary step of providing our county with a temporary "strike team" of judges from other counties to assist our bench in its attempt to eradicate the backlog of criminal work.
      In the meantime, civil litigants and their lawyers are confronted with a reality that is equal parts Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll. With no viable alternative, our courts manage the best they can, with some departments continuing to set dates for civil trials, knowing that the likelihood of the trial actually commencing approaches zero.
      Nevertheless, once a trial date is set, the attorneys must be prepared for the unlikely event of a day in court. Lawyers spend time and (their clients') money preparing for a phantom proceeding. When the day arrives, no courts are available, and the trial date is continued for another three months, leaving counsel to repeat the process at double or triple the usual cost. Other judges, meanwhile, acknowledge the futility of the current environment and simply refuse to set a trial date, leaving the parties to flail about in legal limbo with little to motivate them to move their matter toward resolution.
      Thus, the civil justice system in our county has essentially ceased to function, depriving the good people of Riverside County of their right to a civil jury trial as guaranteed by the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The sheer magnitude of this legal atrocity boggles the mind. Somehow, in the greatest state of the greatest nation in the world, Riverside County is being served by a Third World legal system, one where the very means of protecting the most basic rights of person and property have been relegated to an inferior status.
      How could this possibly happen? It's the confluence of several factors, all of which have created a perfect legal storm that shows no sign of abating.
      First, there is the matter of California Penal Code Section 1050, which mandates that criminal cases shall be heard at the earliest possible time and that, therefore, they "shall be given precedence over, and set for trial without regard to the pendency of, any civil matters or proceedings." While everyone would agree that serious criminal matters should be a priority in our legal system, it is doubtful that the drafters of this legislation thought that it would lead to a world in which the most modest misdemeanor is provided with a courtroom ahead of the civil claims of the seriously injured or the seriously aggrieved.
      This relatively obscure penal statute would have remained unknown if not for the meteoric growth of Riverside County over the past decade. During the past seven years, our county's population has increased by more than 30 percent, to 2 million. Despite this exponential growth, the county was allotted only one additional judicial position by the state legislature before this past summer. Under the guidelines for the Administrative Office of the Courts, Riverside County's population calls for 132 judicial officers. We have 73. The result is a judicial caseload that substantially exceeds the statewide average and is double that of the judges in some California counties.
      Population growth is not the only cause of the problem, although it may be the most visible. The bigger issue is the lack of any local mechanism to ensure that courts receive the resources that they require. Prior to the statewide funding of courts that began in 1998, California's counties oversaw the administration of the judicial system. This allowed local officials to balance the needs of the entire system - courts, district attorneys, public defenders and sheriff's offices. With the responsibility for court operations shifted to the state, however, local officials have failed to consider any impact that increases in executive branch resources may have on the judicial branch.
      Moreover, on a statewide level, every law mandating either increased criminal sentences or creating new crimes altogether, has had the effect of increasing the volume in our judicial system. Yet each time a new law enforcement officer is hired or a new law is passed, no provision is made to increase the resources of our judicial branch.
      The result of this disconnect is now being played out in Riverside County. The office of our district attorney has taken a hard-line approach to plea bargaining, which, of course, is its right. This, combined with our paucity of judges and the factors cited above, has resulted in an inordinate number of cases being set for trial, which has led to our crushing backlog of criminal work. While the gridlock in our county courts persists, our local elected officials have thus far shrugged off the crisis as someone else's problem.
      The legislature has approved new judicial positions statewide and has agreed to provide many of those new judges to Riverside and our sister county, San Bernardino, which has an even higher caseload ratio than we do. Our Democrat-controlled legislature, however, has its own agenda for judicial appointments, which are made by our Republican governor. While the finger-pointing and political jockeying persists, Rome burns.
      The entity that has done the most to provide a solution to our crises is the Administrative Office of the Courts, which recognizes the severity of our problem and has directed significant resources to our beleaguered judiciary. These resources, in the form of visiting judges and a commitment to backfill any vacancies in the county, have provided a welcome respite. But the magnitude of the problem is quickly growing beyond anything that can be resolved in the short term. The backlog of felony cases in our county now exceeds 1,300. Even if we were to somehow get 50 new judges working for a year, they would be unable to eradicate the problem. It's simply too big.
      Chief Justice George spent his tenure being a tireless advocate for our judicial branch, and the problems that we now are confronting are the same ones that he has been warning us about for some time. As long as our judicial branch relies on the other two branches for its resources, it will never be truly independent and co-equal. It will continue to be subject to the ills that now plague Riverside County.
      I hope that we are not the canary in the coal mine, a harbinger of a new phase in our democracy when the judicial branch is viewed as simply another department of the executive branch, competing for funding with freeways and schools. Our courts are not part of our infrastructure - they are part of our government. While freeways and schools are critical, they don't exist without the courts.
      We must give our judicial system the respect it deserves, the resources it requires and the ability to preserve our rights and enforce our laws. If we do not, our economy and our democracy will atrophy, wither and ultimately die. We cannot let that happen. The time to act is now.
     
      David T. Bristow is president of the Riverside County Bar Association. He is a senior attorney at Reid & Hellyer in Riverside.