Trials Resume After 2-Week Moratorium

Jury trials of civil lawsuits resumed Monday in U.S. district courts, ending after two weeks a budget-related moratorium that had drawn criticism from a federal appeals court in California.

The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts called off the moratorium at the end of last week, when the Senate joined the House in approving a supplemental appropriations bill providing more than $3 million for court operations. The White House has assured court officials that President Reagan will sign the legislation, Edward Garabedian, assistant director for personnel and financial management of the Administrative Office, said Monday.

The Judicial Conference of the United States ordered the Administrative Office to suspend civil jury trials effective June 16 as part of a package of cost-cutting measures mandated by the Gramm-Rudman budget reduction plan. Dozens of civil cases were postponed in district courts around the country, and lawyers predicted that delays would multiply as more and more cases got caught in the bottleneck.

In Los Angeles, the moratorium drew a rebuke last week from a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In an advisory opinion, the judges ruled the suspension of jury trials unconstitutional, but they turned down a Westwood attorney’s request that they order the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to ignore the moratorium.

Nationally, “the vast majority of judges” complied with the moratorium, Garabedian said. The suspension did not interrupt ongoing trials or criminal proceedings.