A SPECIAL REPORT: O.C. LAW

MORE THAN CROOKS: The high-profile criminal cases get most of the attention, but in Orange County a huge part of the court overload problem comes from civil cases. For example: This is the only county in the state where civil cases outnumber criminal cases 2 to 1 at the appellate level. . . . “We really don’t understand it,” says Justice Thomas F. Crosby Jr. of the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana. “We think part of it may be the number of businesses and all the construction that goes on in the county.”