Less of a Trial : 2 Programs Ease Caseload in Overburdened Family Court

For nine months, Leslie Smith has been embroiled in an emotionally charged visitation battle with the father of her 3-year-old child.

The case has been continued three times in the last two months, with each continuance adding weeks to the process. And, as her nerves become increasingly raw, she is lashing out at a system painfully slow at meting out justice.

“We have got a big problem in the family courts,” the Oxnard mother said recently. “Ultimately, it is the children that pay the price for that.”

Her case illustrates a logjam in Ventura County family courts that has led judges, attorneys and court administrators to take aggressive steps in response to the escalating caseload, a load so heavy that some cases filed in September were being scheduled for trial in January.

In recent weeks, officials have launched two programs aimed at moving often volatile and emotional cases through the courts more quickly.

The first, a trial-acceleration program, kicked into high gear last week as retired judges were called in to preside over backlogged cases.

And the second, an evening clinic designed to educate litigants who cannot afford attorneys, has triggered such an enormous response that administrators are now scrambling to find enough attorney volunteers to meet the demand.

But even though litigants, judges and attorneys have hailed the programs as steps in the right direction, they acknowledge that they won’t end family-court gridlock.

“We essentially have the same number of judges since 1988, and the family law cases have increased dramatically,” Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Bradley said. “If we had another judge tomorrow, that person would be assigned to the family law court.” The court now has two full-time judges and two part-time commissioners who also hear cases.

The chances of Ventura County being granted a new judgeship in the coming years are slim, Bradley said. So court officials have had to get creative.

“What we had to do was find better, more efficient ways of dealing with the number of issues we had,” said Supervising Family Law Judge Colleen Toy White.

The Pro Per Clinic has gone beyond any other in the state, court officials say, in its effort to assist those representing themselves. The name comes from in propria persona, Latin for “in one’s own proper person,” meaning the litigant is representing himself.

The weekly clinic provides assistance at no cost to such litigants, many of whom have congested the court system because they are not familiar with judicial procedures.

Pro per litigants often do not know how or where to file a case or how to decipher legal issues involved in divorce, custody or other family court matters.

As a result, clerks and judges spend precious time answering questions and rewriting legal paperwork.

“They don’t understand the system, so they are not prepared for the complex issues,” White said.

The delays affect attorneys and other litigants, who often have to wait for hours for their scheduled court appearances.

“If you have a family that is having problems, that delay just doesn’t help,” said Susan Witting, a Thousand Oaks attorney.

“A lot of the issues that face family law are immediate, very highly emotional and even volatile,” Witting said. “You are not dealing with some esoteric contract; you are dealing with who has custody of the children, who is going to pay, who is going to get the house.”

With court costs rising (attorneys say a divorce can now easily cost $5,000), the number of pro per litigants is also increasing. The Judicial Council of California reports that as many as 70% of family law litigants statewide now go to court as pro pers.

To address the problem, the Legislature has mandated counties to hire a family law advisor for each courthouse.

The Board of Supervisors this month approved spending $62,478 to $79,222 to hire a family law facilitator to oversee the Pro Per Clinic and mediate issues of child support, divorce and legal separation.

But county officials decided earlier this year to go beyond the mandate.

White and courts Clerk Sheila Gonzalez traveled to Sacramento and Santa Clara counties to observe their pro per programs before fashioning Ventura County’s clinic.

The results have been overwhelming.

The first clinic Sept. 10 drew 42 people. Since then, the number has more than doubled, and attorneys have been forced to move group counseling sessions into the courthouse cafeteria.

“It is successful beyond our wildest dreams,” said clinic supervisor Florence Prushan, assistant executive officer for the Superior and Municipal courts. “We are just scrambling logistically to keep up with it.”

At the Pro Per Clinic last week, 88 people crowded the jury assembly room. Men and women clutching court forms waited patiently to talk to one of about 10 volunteer attorneys. The sound of giggling could be heard from the nearby children’s waiting room, guarded by a child-care volunteer and a milk crate of menacing rubber dinosaurs.

Ventura family law attorney and clinic volunteer Gay Conroy pulled about a dozen litigants into the cafeteria to give a class on how to fill out divorce papers.

“Community property is property you have acquired with your spouse from the date of marriage to the date of separation,” Conroy instructed, using an overhead projector focused on a court form.

“Again, this is why we have the volunteers here to help you with your listing,” she continued, gesturing to a hovering law clerk and law student. “If you need a volunteer, raise your hand. We have two here dying to help you.”

For Ventura resident Shirley Lang, who attended the clinic for a third time last week, the program has been a blessing. She wrestled with the county for months over a child support matter and had many of her questions answered in one night at the clinic.

“I was able to get a court date in 20 days,” she said. “I felt relieved and elated and surprised. For once, you don’t feel you were talking to a robot.”

One aspect of the clinic that sets it apart from those in other counties is that participants can file forms, such as fee waivers or restraining orders, on the spot. Last week, 19 people filed 66 documents.

Unlike other counties, Ventura also provides child-care services during the clinic, and the cafeteria is open so individuals can eat while they wait.

The program costs the county virtually nothing, since it is run mainly by volunteers, including 44 attorneys, 33 paralegals and 16 law students. And already, attorneys say, they are starting to notice a difference in the case flow.

“It has been in operation about two months now,” Witting said, “and I think that it is helping to relieve some of the calendar congestion.”

Within six months, a similar clinic will open at the East County Courthouse in Simi Valley, White said. And as long as the number of people coming to the Ventura courthouse each week stays below 100, that clinic should be manageable, she says.

“It is just an indication of what the need was,” she said of the response.

Cathleen Drury is a Thousand Oaks family law attorney who ran for a seat on the Superior Court last year on a platform that attacked problems in the family courts. She has worked two nights at the clinic and supports the concept.

“If you don’t have an attorney, you don’t know how to navigate the system,” she said. “The wheels of justice not only grind slowly, they grind to a halt.”

Drury has noticed a sharp increase in cases in the east county and says a clinic there is badly needed.

“I just came from the East County Courthouse and there were over 50 cases on calendar--that is overwhelming,” she said. “Traditionally, the east end of the county is the poor relation and doesn’t get as many resources.”

Bradley and White acknowledge that a lack of resources has been a nagging problem for the courts. To address that, court officials launched the trial-acceleration program last week.

Under this plan, 55 cases previously set for November and December were scheduled last week before two retired judges, and court commissioners and other Superior and Municipal judges who fit them into their court calendars.

Half of those cases were settled during this acceleration program, Bradley said.

Not every case can be dealt with quickly, however. Some litigants in family court warn that accelerating cases, particularly sensitive ones involving children, could cause problems.

“They are already swamped in family court,” said Leslie Smith, a paralegal. A lawyer has been representing her delicate case since it began. While she wishes for a quick resolution, “turning it over faster could create errors,” she said.

The trick for family law judges is to bring resolution to a case without shortchanging the individuals involved, court officials say. And that is difficult with as many as 40 to 50 cases looming on the family court calendar on any given day.

“Those cases should not be handled in a conveyor belt,” White acknowledged. “Those cases need time.”

But the majority of family court matters can and are settled without trials, court officials say. That’s when the acceleration program can be beneficial.

“For every family that got a resolution,” White said of last week’s program, “it had a positive impact on their lives. That to me is what is important. . . . That sounds kind of sappy, but truly, that is what it is all about.”

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FYI

The Family Law Pro Per Clinic is held from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays in the jury assembly room at the Ventura County Courthouse, 800 S. Victoria, Ventura. The clinic provides assistance at no cost to individuals representing themselves in family law court. For more information, call 662-6620.