Two-Tier Courts for Los Angeles
Anent your Aug. 16 editorial, “An Untapped Court Resource,” our decision in the matter of court unification must ultimately turn on whether a one- or two-tier court system can better meet and satisfy the judicial needs of all the people we serve. In Los Angeles County, holding a quarter of the state’s population and a society of unparalleled cultural, ethnic and economic diversity, those needs are broad and complex. The decision of other counties to adopt court unification is simply irrelevant.
The two-tier trial court system has served the people of this megalopolis exceedingly well through many decades of tumultuous change and growth. The Municipal Court, the people’s court, provides a forum where smaller litigants can resolve disputes at relatively little cost. Its judges are elected from small districts close to the people. With the merger of the Municipal into the Superior Court and the creation of a single, massive countywide trial court, the smaller litigant would be lost in the mix.
The Times suggests that Los Angeles judges must be willing to give court unification “a try.” Under Proposition 220, however, once our municipal courts are gone, they’re gone.
Judges will continue to study the question of unification and will do so with an open mind.
DAVID A. WORKMAN
Superior Court Judge
Los Angeles
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