Strike Could Imperil Cases, Judge Worries

As the Los Angeles County court clerks’ strike for higher wages dragged on Friday, the presiding judge of the Superior Court voiced concern that a continued walkout could lead to dismissal of criminal cases that have simply been overlooked.

“Do I worry that something is slipping through the cracks? Sure,” Presiding Judge Robert W. Parkin said. “So far I am not aware that any have. But it may be some [overlooked] cases are out there and attorneys will move to dismiss them.”

Although the district attorney’s office also said Friday that it was unaware of any felony cases that have been dismissed or are in danger of being thrown out, that concern already has been expressed by the striking clerks. Their representatives have charged repeatedly that administrators and others working in courtrooms during the strike have not been logging actions into a countywide computer system that monitors cases.

And, striking clerks have said, it may not be until their walkout ends that those records will be sorted out--perhaps too late to save criminal prosecutions.

“The great possibility exists that these cases [now in court] could be beyond the day” when prosecutions can continue unless defendants waive their right to a speedy trial, said clerks union President Karlene George.

As informal talks resumed Friday between representatives of the court and the 600 courtroom clerks, union officials said picket lines will again be set up outside the Superior and Municipal courts Monday unless there is a settlement.

At this point, union officials said, they believe that their dispute can only be resolved by the court’s judicial administration, since county officials, who will share the cost of the new contracts with the courts, have reached the end of their talks. More significant, perhaps, union officials contend that the court budget, which the judges control, can afford to make up the difference needed to reach a compromise. The county has offered the clerks a 12% pay raise package over the next three years; the union is demanding 15%.

As far back as September, according to a memo circulated among Superior Court judges, some judges argued that the courts should be cautious about offering too much money to the clerks without first knowing how much the county would contribute.

“Even though, legally, we could pay all of the money to the clerks out of our own budget, it would cut our throats because then the Board of Supervisors would be in a position to say, ‘If you have that money to give to the clerks, you certainly don’t need any money from the county,’ ” the Sept. 25 memo to the court’s executive committee says.

“Therefore, the best course to follow is to see how much money that the county is willing to come up with before we can realistically make a final offer to the clerks,” the memo says.

But while union officials said the memo shows that the courts have the money to end the strike, Presiding Judge Parkin disagreed.

“I think what happened is that memo has been misconstrued,” Parkin said late Friday. “The message it was intending to convey was that we can legally give them money, but without the county helping out, we’d have to dig into our budget [for the entire settlement], which we cannot afford to do.”

Union leaders continue to maintain that a settlement would cost the courts about $500,000 annually out of a budget that they say totals $300 million a year. (Court officials place the budget at about $250 million annually.)

Moreover, union officials say that the backlog of court work that will be required when the strike is over will cost at least $2 million in overtime--a figure that court officials call grossly exaggerated.

Whether those numbers prove true, no one is disputing that a massive amount of work lies ahead to log and update the thousands of courtroom proceedings that have occurred since the strike began.