Judge to Defer Civil Court Hearings

The overburdened criminal court system in Riverside County will receive unprecedented relief starting next month when all civil court hearings will be suspended indefinitely and those courtrooms used for criminal trials.

With a backlog of more than 300 criminal jury trials in need of courtrooms, and a deputy district attorney caseload that is the second highest in the state, the presiding judge of Riverside County Superior Court announced Friday that 12 civil courtrooms in Riverside and Indio will be used exclusively for criminal cases effective June 7.

After consulting with a panel of Superior Court judges on Thursday, Judge Douglas Miller told the district attorney, public defender and area defense attorneys of the development, explaining, “We will continue to suspend the civil cases until we are making reasonable headway on the criminal load. Criminal cases are a matter of public safety, and there’s great importance in getting them settled.”

Last year, Miller suspended civil cases at the three Indio courtrooms for six weeks. The suspension of all civil cases now is recognition “of a significant problem for us that requires drastic correction,” he said.

He estimated that the suspensions will last six to eight weeks.

The county’s family law and probate courts will remain open, Miller said.

Dist. Atty. Grover Trask, whose deputies average 90 felony case assignments each, said the volume resulted from the county’s population boom and the state’s inability to provide enough judges.

“Our county has the same amount of filings as Orange County and three times the number of San Francisco County, but San Francisco has the same amount of judges as we do, and Orange County has almost twice as many,” Trask said. “The state’s Judicial Council should look at this crisis as a need for a changing of resources and priorities. This is an immediate need, in spite of the state’s budget concerns.”

Miller said the county had 69 judges and a workload that required 119.

“This is the result of us being the fastest-growing county in the state,” Assistant Public Defender Robert Willey said. “It’s like we’re a teenage kid who’s outgrown his bluejeans.”

Inland Empire police chiefs are writing a resolution urging Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to increase the judicial staff in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Peter Norell, presiding judge in San Bernardino County, said his court system would remain unchanged despite its own overload.

“Those people in civil cases have needs that need to be addressed too,” Norell said. “They have the right to be heard in court.”