J.A.I.L. News
Journal
Judicial
Accountability
Initiative
Law
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, 2022
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.
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