Budget Ax Means Closed Courtrooms, Furloughs

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Citation: Vol. 07 No. 2009 Pg. 02
• Publication year: 2009
• Pages: 02
• Year: 2009
• topic: Business of Law,Bankruptcy and Insolvency,Contracts,Civil Procedure,Real Estate

California Bar Journal 2009.

CBJ - July 2009 #02. Budget ax means closed courtrooms, furloughs

California Bar Journal
July 2009

Budget ax means closed courtrooms, furloughs

By Nancy McCarthy
Staff Writer

California courtrooms will close one day a month if the legislature approves a recommendation by its Budget Conference Committee, charged with wielding the budget ax to close a $24 billion deficit.

The committee last month agreed on a series of recommendations that will slice $393 million from the judicial system's budget by raising some fees and delaying some construction and technology projects. The proposal requires legislative approval and the governor's signature to take effect.

"We never thought we'd ever utter the words, 'let's close the courts,'" said Ron Overholt, chief deputy director of the Administrative Office of the Courts.

"This is such an unprecedented reduction," he added. "It's very painful. We're about access to justice and building programs for the public and this is not that. This is a feeling of dismantling whatever we've built up."

Although most of the budget-balancing cutbacks are aimed at education, health care and prisons, the judicial system is being hit...