Riverside County’s courts know it better than anybody: a $1.5 million-plus helping hand can sometimes come back to slap you.
Earlier this month, Fourth District Court of Appeal Richard Huffman gave the state’s Judicial Council a kind of progress report on the state courts’ efforts to help Riverside County put a dent in its criminal case backlog — and get the gears of its civil courts moving again — by shipping in judges from other counties to help.
There was a lot of good news (like that they’ve made enough of a dent that the oldest criminal cases are now from 2004, not 1994). And some bad (Riverside is still kinda screwed unless it can add more judges to its bench, which we can only guess they are less likely to get after today). You can read all that minutiae here (.pdf).
But there were also plenty of sociological observations about the courthouse culture in Riverside, and those make for some very interesting reading.
That’s no way to show your gratitude: Though universally complimentary of courthouse staff, substitute judges who responded to an exit survey weren’t feeling the warm-and-fuzzies from their judicial colleagues.
“Many assigned judges commented that the Riverside bench officers were somewhat aloof toward them, and some assigned judges did not feel welcomed in the court by the Riverside judges.”
A court date means nothing to these people: Opposing lawyers stipulate to postponements all the time as a matter of "courtesy," a trait that's apparently endemic to county lawyers. Local judges used to be local lawyers, so they're used to it. The DA and public defender actually want a crackdown, but for the most part can't even get their own line attorneys to comply, much less the judges.
“A few judges have embraced the principle that continuances should be granted only as exceptions and not as the ordinary way of conducting court business. Most Riverside judges, including several in leadership positions, continue to believe that an attorney is entitled to one, two, or more continuances of every court event."
There is no “me” in “team.” Wait — there is. But you should ignore it: Judges in different courthouses here like to "assert their independence" from policy directives coming from the county seat. Which is really not what you need when you're trying to teach them a little efficiency.
“Court staff understands the value of countywide consistency and champion it at every opportunity; however, they lack the power to implement their recommendations. Consistent countywide criminal practice requires determined leadership from the presiding judge, the supervising judges in Indio and Murrieta, and the criminal master calendar judges to overcome this long-established centrifugal force within the Riverside court.”
The DA is not the boss of you! The DA apparently doesn't think he should have to be pickier about filing cases, or try harder to settle before trial, in order to help with the caseload issue. Somebody should really be forcing his hand.
“The Strike Force judges brought to Riverside County a posture of judicial independence recognized by the attorneys as different from the approach traditionally assumed by the county’s own judges. It is not yet clear that the Riverside judges have benefited from that example. … The court has now accepted the need to dismiss last-day cases when the caseload overwhelms its resources. This ... shifts the responsibility for the exercise of discretion in criminal charging to the district attorney—where it belongs. It is not yet clear how he will respond.”
— Pam Smith
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