City Atty. Calls Staff Adequate : Lawyers: Hahn orders review of caseloads after employees claim that civil liability unit is understaffed. He makes no promises.

City Atty. James K. Hahn declared Wednesday that the city is receiving adequate representation in civil liability cases, despite claims to the contrary this week by a majority of his lawyers handling such cases. They say their unit is intolerably understaffed and underequipped.

In a letter addressed to Mayor Tom Bradley, Hahn wrote that he would undertake an immediate review of the caseloads of his liability lawyers, 28 of whom issued a statement this week saying that “we can no longer competently and adequately represent the best interests” of the city.

Hahn said that the review would determine whether a redistribution of the workload or a reorganization of the staff is warranted. “The categorical assertion by these 28 attorneys that they are unable to represent the city competently is a serious admission,” he wrote.

But, citing the city’s budget crunch, Hahn made no promise to follow up the attorneys’ demands for additional secretaries, paralegals and computers.

In interviews Wednesday, eight of the lawyers who signed the statement said that conditions have deteriorated to the point that they cannot keep up with their workload of about 100 cases each. The result, they said, is higher costs to the city.

“I had seven cases set for trial between April 30 and June 4,” said Assistant City Atty. Victoria G. Chaney. “I tried three of the seven and we had to settle the other ones. . . . One of the considerations for settlement in those cases was the fact there wasn’t a body to try them.”

“Some of those cases, had they been prepared earlier, or the attorney been better able to prepare them, some of them may have been disposed of in other ways.”

The liability lawyers, who defend the city in cases ranging from automobile accidents to wrongful deaths, released their petition at a time when the city is facing a major increase in costly legal settlements. After holding steady at about $15 million annually through the 1980s, settlements skyrocketed to $34 million in fiscal 1989-90 and are increasing at an even quicker rate this year.