A Crying Need for More Judges

In an ironic twist, the Orange County Bar Assn. has gone to court to seek some resolution of the growing backlog of cases that is clogging the county’s court system and forcing litigants to wait from 3 to 5 years before their lawsuits can be heard.

The county bar, in a lawsuit filed last Tuesday in federal court, contends that the state has failed to establish the needed trial and appellate court judgeships and fill existing vacancies. It challenges as unconstitutional the state rule that limits the number of judges that counties are allowed.

The villains, according to the bar, are the governor, who has been slow to make judicial appointments, and the Legislature, which has not authorized enough judges to meet the growing caseload.

On the face of it, Orange County attorneys appear to have a solid case against Sacramento. For example, last year the county sought 15 new Superior Court judges. Only five were authorized. And not all of them have been appointed.

By contrast, neighboring San Diego County, which has nearly the same population, sought 18 new judges last year, was granted 13, and has 12 more authorized judges than does Orange County. The serious insufficiency of judges is not a new problem. The shortchanging is almost historic. Orange County invariably fails to receive the number of new judges it asks for and should have, according to standards set down by the California Judicial Council.

In fact, according to bar association officials, the only county in the state that has fared worse is Los Angeles, which filed a similar lawsuit. A federal court judge has rejected state efforts to get that suit thrown out of court. Curiously enough, that suit has been in the federal court system for the last 16 months.

Orange County’s courts are overloaded and understaffed. More than 7,000 cases are ready to go to trial, and in the appellate court new appeals come in faster than the justices can consider and rule on them.

The system has been using all the alternatives, such as judge pro tems, settlement conferences and arbitration panels to speed the process, but the backlog is too great. People shouldn’t have to wait up to 5 years to have their day in court, or be so discouraged by the overloaded system that they decide against seeking their rightful legal recourse. That does more than delay justice. In effect, it denies it, or creates pressure for an assembly-line system of justice.

More judges are needed to clear the logjam. It is that need, not a lawsuit, that the governor and Legislature should have been responding to.