A Shorter Road to Bankruptcy : Law: A new full-time court in Santa Barbara has been hearing cases originating in western Ventura County, easing the L.A. Civic Center caseload.

The legal process of going broke has become more convenient for businesses and individuals in much of Ventura County.

Since June 1, bankruptcy cases originating in Oxnard, Ventura, Camarillo and other parts of western Ventura County have been heard by a full-time unit of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in downtown Santa Barbara. The court, which previously was open only eight days a month, also serves all of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Previously those cases were processed in the overloaded federal bankruptcy court in the Los Angeles Civic Center. But with bankruptcy filings setting records in Southern California and throughout the nation, opening another court in Santa Barbara has reduced the waiting time for debtors, creditors and their attorneys to resolve cases.

On June 29, a full-service clerk’s office also opened in the same building that houses the Santa Barbara court. The office, officially called the Northern Division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court’s Central California District, handles all paperwork associated with filings in the area served by the Santa Barbara court.

The new clerk’s office eliminates at least half the driving time between western Ventura County and the Los Angeles bankruptcy court. As before, businesses and individuals in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and most of Moorpark are still assigned to the Los Angeles court and offices.

The Santa Barbara facilities are hardly a set designer’s dream--the courtroom spectator seats don’t even have armrests--but people who conduct business there seem pleased. The one full-time judge, Robin L. Riblet, 43, is generally given high marks by attorneys. She is one of two judges who formerly traveled from Los Angeles to conduct court in Santa Barbara 3 1/2 days each month.

“I’ve heard her say she’d been up reading court papers until 11:30 the night before a hearing,” said William E. Winfield, a bankruptcy attorney with the Oxnard-based law firm of Nordman, Cormany, Hair & Compton. “I’m well-impressed.”

In the Santa Barbara court’s office, a young woman waiting to file a large stack of legal papers agreed that the changes have been for the better.

“It’s saving me hours of driving every week,” she said. “And the lines in L.A. are so long I’ve been tempted to bring my lunch.”

She works for a service that files papers, checks court records and does other work for attorneys. In Los Angeles, she added, the people working behind the counters are sometimes harried.

“Here, you never have to wait more than a few minutes, and the people are always courteous.”

A few minutes later, it was her turn in line. She replaced a young couple who appeared unfazed when told that their bankruptcy filing fee was $120.

In June, July and August, Riblet’s first three months in Santa Barbara full time, her court processed 1,185 cases, or nearly 5% of the 23,787 cases handled by the entire central district. The Central District of California, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, covers the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Orange County and Riverside.

In addition to Riblet, 13 deputy clerks are assigned to Santa Barbara. This compares with 18 judges and 300 deputy clerks in the rest of the district. Twelve of the judges are based in downtown Los Angeles and three each hear cases in satellite locations in Santa Ana and San Bernardino.

Court officials estimate that 30% to 45% of the cases coming before Riblet’s court originate in Oxnard, Ventura and Camarillo.

The workload will become heavier if, as expected, the court is moved to Ventura in the next several years. At that time, a second judge will probably be added and bankruptcies from the rest of Ventura County and even part of L.A. County may be assigned to the division, said Frank E. Goodroe, clerk of the Central Court and the district’s top administrator.

Goodroe said plans originally called for the Santa Barbara court to be moved to Ventura in about a year, but the move has been delayed because of budget problems and a greater need in the San Bernardino-Riverside area.

“We have a satellite court in San Bernardino that’s even busier than the one in Santa Barbara,” Goodroe said. “To relieve the pressure in San Bernardino, a new court will be opened in Riverside. That’s been given top priority.”

Actually, bankruptcy-related hearings already are being conducted in Ventura. These are so-called 341(a) hearings, named after the Bankruptcy Code section that calls for them, to determine debtors’ assets and liabilities.

The hearings are conducted in the County Government Center in Santa Barbara by independent trustees who are appointed by the U.S. Trustee’s Office, an agency of the Justice Department. Many of the hearings involve businesses that have filed Chapter 11 in hopes of reorganizing their debts under the U.S. Bankruptcy code, or failing that, businesses are liquidated under Chapter 7.

Ron Durkin, the partner in charge of the Ventura and Los Angeles county offices of the accounting firm of Neilson Elggren Durkin & Co., has been a trustee handling Ventura County bankruptcies since 1988.

“I suppose it’s a sign of the times, but . . . when I started serving as a trustee, I was getting about 100 cases every three weeks,” he said. “Now I’m averaging 230 cases in the same length of time. Sometimes, because of the volume, I have dozens of people standing up at the same time to swear that they’re truthfully declaring their assets and liabilities.”

Durkin, a former FBI agent, takes pains to watch for signs of fraudulently concealed assets. But even though he’s been able to discover some cover-ups, he’s especially proud of cases in which he’s helped businesses and individuals get back on their feet.

“Last year, I had a Chapter 7 liquidation that was being heard by Judge Riblet. It involved a high-tech electronics business in Newbury Park. I was able to keep the company intact for a couple of months until we auctioned it off. We got $2.3 million. We saved the business and 110 jobs.”

Durkin admits, however, that the vast majority of the bankrupt companies he encounters never reopen their doors.

“Usually, by the time a case gets to me, the body has already been carted off. All that’s left are the chalk marks.”

Despite the improved service in Santa Barbara, attorney Winfield believes the bankruptcy system as a whole is in crisis. With U.S. filings of all kinds now exceeding a million a year, the system is “on overload,” Winfield said.

“Locating a courtroom closer to our county is helpful, but the fact remains that 90% of the businesses that try to reorganize under Chapter 11 fail to do so.”

Winfield hopes a proposed new code section, Chapter 10, aimed at helping medium- and small-size businesses to reorganize their debts, will reduce paperwork and other red tape.

California, hit harder than most other states by the recession, saw bankruptcies soar 43% in the first half of this year. In the state’s central district, the volume rose 22%, to a record 46,756 in the first six months of the year from 38,469 in the comparable period of 1991.

Since the Santa Barbara operation is so new, year-to-year comparisons aren’t yet available. But court officials generally agree that bankruptcies in Ventura County and the other counties served by the new division are, like their counterparts elsewhere, at record levels.