Night Court Program Launched to Cut County Backlog of Cases
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County Supervisors Ed Edelman and Mike Antonovich, Sheriff Sherman Block and dozens of top Los Angeles County court officials officially launched the first phase of the county’s experimental night court in a Los Angeles Municipal courtroom Monday afternoon.
Reportedly the first of its kind in the nation, the program is aimed at easing the crush of criminal cases that have tied up court dockets for years. Under the plan, the Municipal courtroom and three Superior courtrooms will be open from 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Two staffs in each courtroom will process an entire range of felony casework from arraignments and preliminary hearings in the Municipal Court to full-scale trials and sentencings in the Superior courtrooms.
The first Superior Court will begin its extended workday on Feb. 18.
Calling the program a “magnificent opportunity” to improve the court system, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Gilbert Garcetti predicted that “in a very short period of time, this pilot project . . . is going to be a permanent part of the criminal justice system.” Calling it a “common-sense solution,” Antonovich said the plan is an “attempt to better utilize the multimillion-dollar courts we built.”
The first six months of the pilot program will cost an estimated $1.6 million.
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