Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Page 1
Central Civil West Courthouse Remains Closed This Week
By TINA BAY, Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Superior Court’s Central Civil West Courthouse at 600 S. Commonwealth Avenue will remain closed for the rest of the week and will hopefully reopen on Monday, officials said yesterday.
Capt. Ernie Bobadilla, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, told the MetNews that the LAFD Fire Prevention Bureau has allowed limited access to building employees only—which indicates that power has been restored to some extent—but would not allow the general public in “until all the safety issues come back up to full use.”
According to Bobadilla, an overheated generator on CCW’s 19th floor caused an electrical fire Sunday that generated a large quantity of smoke which spread throughout building and completely shut down its emergency power.
“There is not a determined time frame as to when there will be full use returned to the public or to the building itself,” he said.
Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini said the Monday reopening is “hopefully tentative” and that fire and safety officials are continually monitoring and reevaluating the facilities, which have been closed to the public since Monday.
In the meantime, the court said that CCW’s business has been diverted on a limited basis to the Stanley Mosk Courthouse at 111. N. Hill Street.
Parachini said the court hopes to minimize the effects of CCW’s closure, which will likely be aggravated by the city’s announced repairs on sidewalks around Mosk.
“The [CCW] judges are extraordinarily professional people, as are their staff, and they are adapting to a very difficult situation better than anyone has any right to expect,” he said.
Judges and staff of the Complex Litigation Unit have been relocated to Mosk and will continue handling matters, but only to a limited extent since paper case records are currently irretrievable from CCW. Cases in which a mass of documents have been posted online may be able to get more accomplished than matters in which the paper record represents the only documents, Parachini said.
The court has instructed that all documents in pending complex litigation unit cases be filed in Room 102 of Mosk.
Child Support Services-related matters calendared for Thursday and Friday will be heard in Room 614 and Room 617 at Mosk—parties can report to either room—with matters that were calendared for Monday through today to be rescheduled. Parties seeking information on new dates, as well as Child Support Services Dept. customers with other business at CCW, can obtain information by calling (800) 615-8858, the court said.
Additionally, the court has directed clients of the. Public Defender’s Office to call Head Deputy Public Defender Leslie McMillan at (213) 744-4135 for information on their cases.
“We hope [CCW] can reopen very soon but we are developing plans to get the necessary records and files out, if we have to do it that way,” Parachini said.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company