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Metropolitan
News-Enterprise Administrative Office of the Courts Report Calls Court Unification a Success By
a MetNews Staff Writer
Court unification is a smashing success, according to a new report that cites cost savings but fails to quantify them. The 67-page "Analysis of Trial Court Unification in California" dated Sept. 28 but released by the Administrative Office of the Courts yesterday, said the unification of superior and municipal courts in almost all of the state's counties has resulted in improved services to the public, more efficient use of money and better use of judges' time. The report, prepared for the state Judicial Council by the American Institutes for Research, does not include data on the Los Angeles Superior Court, which unified with the county's 24 municipal courts earlier this year. The study focused only on the 53 courts that unified by April 1999. Most of the findings fall directly in line with predictions made by the Judicial Council, which favored unification. Courts achieved greater flexibility in assigning judges to cases, the report said, removing jurisdictional limitations and allowing judges to hear a wider range of matters, the report said. But the added flexibility has increased the need for new training to acquaint judges with the variety of cases they are to handle, the report said. The report includes tables that outline "successful strategies" that some courts have employed to make the most of unification. One strategy for improving court operations, for example, was to eliminate "all references to municipal court in signs, stationery, etc." and to have a welcome party for relocated staff to enhance team building and motivation. The report contains no actual or estimated cost savings and does not quantify the number of redundant court facilities closed or equipment or staff consolidations. A letter from Los Angeles Superior Court Presiding Judge Victor Chavez to Chief Justice Ronald M. George in June cited a savings of $1.214 million in the five months since the courts' unification here, including $900,000 in savings from attrition of managerial positions that were not filled at the same level. Chavez also cited as a benefit the funding used to implement complex litigation courts. That funding was not a direct result of unification, but was the result of a decision by the Judicial Council not to grant such money to courts that did not unify. AOC spokeswoman Lynn Holton said there was no present plan to issue a follow-up report that includes Los Angeles or reports more quantifiable data. Unification was made possible by voter approval in 1998 of Proposition 220, under which the judges of each county decided whether to unify into a single superior court. Only Kings and Monterey counties have yet to unify. They are awaiting clearance by the U.S. Department of Justice. |
Copyright
Metropolitan News Company, 1999