The most recent state-wide budget cuts have forced drastic cuts to personal injury cases in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, as well as other counties within California. Imminent changes will have meaningful and profound effects upon the way cases are handled in the California judicial system. Recent changes in the Los Angeles Superior Court illustrate these draconian changes:
The “Fast Track” system in Los Angeles County Superior Court has ended. After being ordered to cut its budget by $55 million to $86 million within the next six months, the Superior Court system will be closing ten courthouses this month, and it is assigning all personal injury cases to three Courtrooms consisting of five Judges. Each courtroom will be required to manage as many as 8,000 cases.
In Los Angeles County, ten courthouses are closing with their bench officers redeployed elsewhere in the Superior Court system. These include the Huntington Park, Whittier, Pomona North, Malibu, West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and San Pedro courthouses.
All personal injury and limited jurisdiction actions will now be filed in the Downtown Los Angeles Courthouse. Personal injury actions at the Downtown Courthouse will be handled by the master calendar judges. Personal injury cases currently filed in outlying districts are being transferred to the Central Courthouse.
In order to handle the enormous caseload increase, the Court will stop monitoring the service of Summons and Complaints upon defendants. The Court is also eliminating Case Management Conferences. When a plaintiff files a Complaint, the Court will issue a trial and Final Status Conference dates. Trials will likely be set approximately 18 months after filing of the Complaint. The plaintiff will have six months to serve the defendants.
The Court will no longer require parties in personal injury cases to report back on the results of any settlement conferences or mediation. None will be ordered. Indeed, all Alternative Dispute Resolution programs at each of the County of Los Angeles’ courthouses will be shut down. If the parties choose to attend mediation, all mediation will be conducted privately. The Court is keeping a Mandatory Settlement Conference program, but the Mandatory Settlement Conference will most likely be conducted close to the trial date, and the Judges will have limited time for each case.
At the time of trial, the Master Calendar Judges will assign personal injury cases to one of thirty-one dedicated trial courts throughout the County. Eleven of the trial courts are in downtown Los Angeles, while the rest are spread throughout the other Courthouses. For example, a case whose incident occurred in an area governed by the Pomona Courthouse, could be tried at the Central Courthouse, Van Nuys Courthouse, etc… Indeed, parties heading to trial will not be informed where in the County their trial will be heard until the day that trial is to begin.
The last minute assignment of trial will have two consequences. First, the parties will not know which courthouse they will be trying their cases. In light of the fact that about one third of the trial courts are now in downtown Los Angeles, the trial has a 30% chance of being tried downtown, where jurors are generally more favorable to plaintiffs. Second, since the parties do not know which Judge will be assigned to try the matter, the parties will need to be ready to file a Code of Civil Procedure §170.6 preemptory challenge to the assigned Judge.
Also, judges will likely make every effort to see that the right to a jury has been waived by a party. Under a new law, advance jury fees “shall be made on or before the date scheduled for the initial case management conference in the action.” (Code of Civil Procedure §631(c)). These advance jury fees are nonrefundable. Expect that the court will continue to require early posting of fees even while it eliminates Case Management Conferences. Expect too that judges will deny requests to post such fees late.
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