Chief judge: Officials battling case backlog

By: CHRIS BAGLEY - Staff Writer | Thursday, April 19, 2007 10:32 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA -- State and local court officials are scrambling in numerous ways to ease a severe backlog of civil court cases, Riverside County's chief judge told attorneys Thursday.

Riverside County Superior Court has added just one judge in the last six years, Presiding Judge Richard Fields said, even as the county's population ---- including litigants and criminal suspects ---- has grown by about 400,000 people.

That has translated into long delays, particularly for trials on civil lawsuits, since state law requires criminal proceedings to be heard first. To keep criminal cases from backing up too severely, judges who used to hear civil matters see their dockets full of criminal cases.

"When you consider we're so short, it's amazing we're still operating," Fields told two dozen lawyers at a Southwest Riverside County Bar Association luncheon Thursday.

As presiding judge, Fields acts as chief administrator of the local branch of state courts, assigning cases to jurists throughout the county and coordinating trial schedules.

A bill passed by the Legislature last year cleared the way for the state courts to hire 50 judges later this year, at an estimated cost of $38 million. Court administrators have recommended that seven of the 50 be assigned to Riverside County. A bill under consideration this year would fund another 50 judgeships starting in July 2008. Administrators have recommended six of those be created in Riverside County Superior Court.

Meanwhile, local courts have been swearing in experienced, respected attorneys as "pro tem" judges, allowing them to hear preliminary motions that judges would normally handle. That frees up judges to preside over jury trials and major hearings, such as requests that cases be dismissed.

Both the plaintiff's attorney and the defendant's attorney must agree to the substitution, Fields said. One day, attorneys subbed in on numerous cases throughout the county without a single objection, he said.

Riverside County courts expanded that program Monday, after several months of more limited use, Fields said.

The state's 58 presiding judges meet once or twice a month in San Francisco and Sacramento to discuss the needs of the various branches. Along with the court system's administrators, most perceive dire needs in Riverside County courts, Fields said. California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George singled out the county's courts in his annual address to the Legislature.

A study released in February by the Administrative Offices of the Courts, a branch of state government, estimated the county needs 119 judges, 70 more than it has now. Each handles an average of seven trials a year, more than in any other county except Sacramento and a half-dozen small rural counties, according to state statistics.

While local criminal cases move through the courts about as quickly as in other counties, only 55 percent of civil cases in Riverside County were resolved within a year, according to a state report covering the 2004-05 fiscal year, the latest for which statistics are available. That compared to 64 percent statewide and 77 percent in San Diego County.

Fields said the backlog in Riverside County has grown worse since then. Three years ago, each civil court judge was handling an average of one jury trial a week, he said. Nowadays, some go for months on end without civil trials, Fields said, because they're tied up with criminal trials. Of the 16 trials handled by one civil judge, 15 were criminal cases, he said.

Murrieta City Councilwoman Kelly Bennett, a lawyer and mediator who is president of the local bar association, said she and Murrieta Councilman Doug McAllister are forming a task force of local elected officials to press the state government further on the courts issue. Even criminal cases threaten to overwhelm local courts, Bennett said.

"If the police go down and arrest someone, and they're in and out of jail in eight hours, it's a public safety issue," she said.

A criminal defense lawyer at the meeting Thursday said she blamed the courts' backlog partly on the district attorney's office, adding that prosecutors in Riverside County are much less likely to propose realistic plea bargains than prosecutors in other Southern California counties where she has worked. That forces more cases into trials that consume judges' time, said the lawyer, Robin Johnson of Temecula.

Fields said local courts have been unable to keep up with growth in the Riverside County district attorney's office and in the office of the public defender. Prosecutors increased by 77 percent to 225 deputy district attorneys from 2000-06 and deputy public defenders have increased by 64 percent to 150, he said. In the same period, local judgeships have increased by just 2 percent, to 49, according to state records.

Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2615, or cbagley@californian.com.