The State of California is in a fiscal crisis and the Courts of the State are not immune to this crisis. The Court system in California is divided up into counties. Each county has its own courts that operate partly on revenues generated from filing fees and local taxes and partly on funds from the Sacramento. Each county is dealing with the budget crisis in slightly different ways but the bottom line is that services offered by the Courts that we once took for granted are either no longer being offered or are being scaled back severely. For example, many counties do not provide court reporters for hearings or trials. It is now up to the litigants to contract with court-approved court reporters to attend and record the hearing or trial. The office hours for the Court Clerk’s office have been reduced, meaning that it is harder to file and retrieve documents with the Courts. Staff has been reduced both in the courtroom and the Clerk’s office. This means that it is taking much longer for the Court to process and return important documents such as dismissals, default judgments, abstracts of judgment, etc.

In San Diego County, the number of research attorneys supporting the judges has been drastically reduced. This has resulted in the Courts having to set motion hearing dates out further and further in the future to allow time for the limited number of research attorneys to thoroughly review the motion papers, research the law and provide the judge deciding the matter with a preliminary opinion. We are seeing hearings for such routine matters such as demurrers and motions to compel discovery responses being set six months or more in the future as opposed to pre-budget cut times when such motions were generally heard within sixty days or sooner.

In the face of a $9 million shortfall in its budget for fiscal year 2014-2015, the San Diego Superior Court has recently announced further cuts that will affect the administration of justice. Effective December 22, 2014, the Kearny Mesa Small Claims Courthouse will be closed and all operations, hearings and trials will be transferred to the Hall of Justice and Central Courthouse in Downtown San Diego. In addition, effective January 5, 2015, the Civil Appellate Departments in the San Diego North, South and East County Divisions will be closed and all case filings will be transferred to the Central Division.

This means that Associations filing Small Claims lawsuits will now have to file the lawsuit in the Central Courthouse and all Small Claims hearings will be held in the Central Courthouse. The Kearny Mesa facility on Clairemont Mesa Boulevard will close, effective December 22, 2014.

“The wheels of justice turn slowly, but grind fine.” (Attributed to Sextus Empiricus circa 500 A.D.) It seems that those wheels will be turning even slower due to the most recent budget cuts.