Court Buildings: It’s a Crime

The dreary county courthouse on Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles will soon be renamed for the late Justice Stanley Mosk. But California owes the 1950s block edifice--and Mosk--more than a new nameplate.

The building needs fixing. Earthquake damage and asbestos are just two long-standing problems. And that building is just one problem among many of the Los Angeles Superior Court’s 59 courthouses, from Santa Monica to Whittier. A recent report concluded that 12 buildings housing courts are so unsafe and dilapidated they should be demolished. The county’s attempt at a mental health court, for example, is in a 100-year-old former pickle factory in Cypress Park. The roof leaks when it rains, flooding court records. Graffiti covers outside walls. Lawyers confer with clients in what used to be janitors’ closets. Meanwhile, in the Pomona courthouse, elevators regularly break down, trapping jurors and attorneys.

In a state with 451 courthouses, Los Angeles Superior Court is hardly the only one whose buildings need serious attention, and Los Angeles is not the only county facing a severe budget crunch that makes upkeep a problem. Refurbishing aging courthouses certainly does not merit the same high priority for county supervisors as ensuring that poor people get medical care. But these places where people go to seek justice are as much a part of the public infrastructure as roads, bridges and schools, and their disrepair exposes counties not just to embarrassment but to costly liability claims.

How then to pay for the accumulated $5 billion in deferred courthouse repairs statewide? Chief Justice Ronald George last week floated the idea of a state bond measure. George acknowledges that the plan is ambitious. “But it’s not a wish list,” he says, “it’s imperative.”

We agree. Nowhere is the public’s stake in good government so starkly revealed as in a courthouse. This importance of the courts is precisely why Los Angeles’ supervisors are right to give high honor to a man such as Mosk, who dedicated 16 years to the Los Angeles Superior Court before joining the California Supreme Court, where he served until his death last June. Now lawmakers must make sure that the building named for this outstanding jurist isn’t an insult to his memory.