Superior Court Adopts Earlier Starting Time
In an effort to speed the resolution of cases, Los Angeles County’s Superior Court has adopted a new policy requiring all departments to begin proceedings half an hour earlier, it was announced Monday.
The 8:30 a.m. starting time was adopted in response to a recent report by the RAND Corp. concluding that the court is fast-approaching civil case gridlock because of a shortage of judges and found that at least 106 additional full-time judges are needed to process growing caseloads.
The report also recommended that judges increase official court hours from six to seven hours per day. The new policy was adopted by the court’s Executive Committee, a 17-judge policy-making body.
The extra half-hour, which will go into effect Jan. 2, will enable the court to increase productivity by 119 hours a day, or almost 600 hours a week, officials said. Family law judges and many of the 25 judges in the civil Trial Delay Reduction Program downtown already take the bench at 8:30 a.m.
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