Lawyers, Courts Brace for ‘Fast Track’ : Litigation: A new program will accelerate the resolution of lawsuits. It aims at cutting backlogs from five years to one year.

With some trepidation, lawyers who handle civil lawsuits will gather today at the Ventura County Government Center to raise questions about how a new system dramatically speeding up litigation will affect their practices and their clients.

Dubbed the “fast track” system, or in legal jargon, the Civil Differential Case Management Program, it is mandated by law to be in place in superior courts throughout the state on July 1 and is aimed at cutting court backlogs from five years to one year in most cases.

A similar system was begun statewide in municipal courts last year.

An overhaul of the state criminal justice system, also designed to quicken the pace of justice, was mandated by Proposition 115, approved by voters two years ago.

Taking into account the apprehension among some lawyers that their practices could suffer in the scramble to keep up with accelerated court dates, the fast track’s coordinator, Carol Knopf, said “justice will be served even better” when it is in place.

Actually, said Knopf, who was hired last month to manage the speedup, the real winner will be the public.

“The people who are really going to benefit are the litigants,” said Knopf, 44, an attorney, who was the supervising law clerk for the Los Angeles Municipal Court. “They won’t have to wait five years to have their cases adjudicated.”

Under legislation signed into law in 1986, three major changes face judges, lawyers and members of the public who are involved in civil litigation in Ventura County courtrooms:

* Under the old system, a case had to be brought to trial within five years or it was dismissed. After July 1, 90% of all civil cases filed must be completed within one year, 98% within 18 months, and 100% within two years. Judges will have some discretion to allow extension of deadlines.

* Under the previous system, an attorney had to serve a defendant with court papers within three years of filing a complaint. But after July 1, the three-year period disappears. Lawyers will be compelled to serve a potential defendant and provide proof of service to the court within 60 days.

* Under the Code of Civil Procedure, lawyers have had great leeway in the amount of time they can take to investigate a case. In the past, discovery had to be completed 30 days before a trial’s commencement even if it took several years to go to trial. After July 1, however, discovery will have to be completed within 210 days in most cases from the time a civil case is filed.

Although it means that they will have to work harder, most judges appear optimistic about the new system in the face of a growing caseload that sees about 950 filings a month in Ventura County Municipal Court and about 450 a month in Superior Court.

“We have to have some sort of management system,” said Municipal Judge John J. Hunter, who supervised the start-up of the accelerated pace in Municipal Court that began in January, 1991.

To be sure, said Supervising Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren, the judges themselves could have thrust a similar system upon the attorneys. But, he said, without a legal mandate there could have been a heated squabble about the judges taking advantage of attorneys.

“The general feeling among lawyers is that they are not enamored with the (new) process because it takes some control of cases away from them,” he said. “They don’t like that.”

As for his colleagues on the bench, Perren said they would almost certainly have to extend their already long hours to get the new system off to a fast start.

“We will have to work harder,” he said. “I don’t know how we’ll do it, but we’re tasked to do it.”

Lawyers, however, appear cautious about the new system.

“The most significant effect will be on a small firm like ours,” said James E. Doles, a Ventura lawyer who works in a two-person law firm with John H. Howard, the president of the Ventura County Trial Lawyers Assn.

Doles said he does not oppose the new system, but added that his firm will simply have to be “more judicious” in taking on clients.

“We are going to most likely have to turn down some cases so that we’re not too fat with trial deadlines,” he said.

J. Roger Myers, the president of the Ventura County Bar Assn., said accelerating court cases sounds good in theory, but he wonders if there will be enough personnel to handle the quicker pace.

“I’m a little skeptical if the courts will have the staffing and judges to implement this,” he said.

Family law litigation, which includes divorce cases, probate litigation and small claims disputes, is excluded from the fast-track system. Civil cases already in litigation also are excluded.

If lawyers still dally after July 1, judges will have the power to sanction, or fine, lawyers who cannot meet the deadlines.

“Neither the judges in the Ventura court nor I are crazy about sanctions,” Knopf said. “It’s like a club. Sanctions will be a last resort.”

To enable lawyers to keep abreast of fast-approaching court dates under the new system, the Ventura courthouse will soon have in place a first-in-the-state computer system--called the remote access project--that will allow attorneys to have access to key deadline information regarding their cases.

In addition to Knopf and lawyers who practice in Ventura County and nearby venues, the lunch meeting at noon today in Courtroom 22 in the Hall of Justice also is expected to draw several Superior Court judges who will have to enforce the new system.

Among them will be Perren; Judge Richard D. Aldrich, the Superior Court jurist supervising the fast track system; and Municipal Judge Hunter.

“It’s working great,” Hunter said, reflecting on his experience with the new system already in place in Municipal Court. If it was slow starting up, he said, it was because many lawyers are not used to “cases moving very fast.”

To prove that it is working, Hunter provided statistics that showed that in the almost 17 months that the system has been in place in Municipal Court, 97% of civil lawsuits filed were disposed of--either through settlement, dismissal or trial--within a year; and 3% took up to 14 months to be closed.

Anticipating that some attorneys might be jittery about accelerating their court pace, Knopf said lawyers will simply have to alter their work habits and be more prompt.

“It’s not optional,” she said. “It’s not something the judges came up with. The state said, ‘do it.’

“But we want to work with the attorneys. We’re not going to cut anyone’s head off. But they’ve got to do it.”