Long Beach : Consultant to Study Space Needs at Busy Courthouse

Los Angeles County has hired an independent surveyor to examine space at the Long Beach courthouse, which has a caseload so high that trials have been held in local hotel rooms.

The 10-month survey that began this month will project how much space will be needed over the next decade and determine whether the 30-year-old courthouse can be renovated to accommodate an exploding number of criminal and civil matters heard there, court officials said.

The courthouse on Ocean Boulevard has been stretched to its limits for years with a burgeoning felony caseload--3,271 in 1989--more than half of them drug-related, Supervising Superior Court Judge Richard F. Charvat said.

Eight of the nine Superior Court judges are assigned to hear criminal cases to keep up with the influx of defendants who have a right to a speedy trial, leaving just one judge and one courtroom to handle more than 1,700 civil matters in Long Beach, Charvat said.

Retired judges have been hired to help relieve the backlog, but there is often no courtroom to accommodate them, and cases have been heard at the Holiday Inn and the Pacific Coast Club, Charvat said.

Surveyors will interview employees of the Municipal and Superior courts, the district attorney, public defender, sheriff and marshal to determine space needs. The cost of the project is not to exceed $336,000, court officials said.