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San Bernardino County court cases to be reorganized
October 31, 2013 posted by Steve Brownstein
The Superior Court of San Bernardino County has released plans to reorganize local cases when the new Justice Center in downtown San Bernardino opens.
Attorneys and judges were advised earlier this month about the significant changes, which includes sending all family and civil cases from the courthouse in Rancho Cucamonga to San Bernardino.
The plans will take effect in May.
“These changes will allow this court, which has been historically underfunded and is dealing with several consecutive years of budget cuts, to manage its scarce resources as effectively and efficiently as possible,” said Presiding Judge Marsha Slough.
The reorganization looks like this:
San Bernardino district criminal cases, both felonies and misdemeanors, will be heard in the new San Bernardino Justice Center.
Countywide civil cases, including those from Rancho Cucamonga, will be moved to the new San Bernardino Justice Center.
West Valley Superior Courthouse in Rancho Cucamonga will only hear West End criminal cases. Felony and misdemeanor cases in Fontana will be reviewed to determine which courthouse - San Bernardino or Rancho Cucamonga - is better equipped to hear them.
The Rancho Cucamonga courthouse will also have temporary hearings on both civil and domestic violence restraining order matters.
San Bernardino family law cases will stay in the historic San Bernardino building. Rancho Cucamonga family law cases will move to the historic courthouse in San Bernardino.
Family law cases in Victorville will stay where they are.
Cases of small claims, landlord tenants and traffic/non-traffic infractions from the San Bernardino, Fontana and Rancho Cucamonga districts will be heard in Fontana.
The new Justice Center, which the restructure revolves around, is scheduled to be open for business on May 28.
“This is an opportunity for us to really evaluate how we do business as efficiently and effectively and smartly as we can,” Slough said.
The reorganization is one of the solutions intended to offset the court’s darkest hour.
Slough said within the county court system, 86 judges are doing the work of 156, and 866 employees are doing the work of about 1,500.
And in the last year and a half, courthouses in Chino, Needles and Big Bear have closed due to budget cuts. And there is only one courtroom currently open in Barstow, which is scheduled to close July 1.
With each of these changes, officials have had to shift the workload, Slough said.
“But the re-structuring deepens our ability to handle this massive caseload that we have been carrying,” she sad. “We have to be as effective and efficient as we can be with our business.”
However, there is criticism toward the new plans.
David H. Ricks, an attorney with the Inland Empire Law Group in Rancho Cucamonga, said he is especially frustrated with the plan to move all family law and civil matters out of the West Valley area. He said local lawyers and judges should have been consulted before the changes were decided.
“I personally have not found a single person who supports the move. Without openness and discussion, we as attorneys and many of the judges, are left in the dark watching the access to justice and court services dwindling unnecessarily,” Ricks said.
He’s worried that the new plan will do more harm than good.
“Our courts in San Bernardino (County), especially in Rancho Cucamonga, were a model of efficiency. The Judicial Council came to see how it was that judges handling between 400 to 800 cases each could get those cases resolved or tried so efficiently,” Ricks said.
“Frankly, the efficiency stems from the close relationship between the attorneys and the judges, who work together to find solutions to the disputes. Now with the judges at a further distance, less connected to the cases and the attorneys, efficiency will be lost and the relationship previously built between the bar and the bench will disappear.”
Ricks, also the president-elect of the Western San Bernardino County Bar Association, is also worried that once the cases are moved, the West End will not see a local civil court again.
“San Bernardino County residents are the big losers in this move,” Ricks said. “An outcry needs to come from the public to keep the services their tax dollars pay for.”
Ricks cited several negative examples that could come from the changes.
“Instead of having personal injury cases tried in the community where the injured person resides, that person will have to travel significant distances to call upon the courts for compensation for his or her losses,” he said.
Ricks also talked hypothetically about how an abused woman reliant on public transportation could miss her court appointment and “will not be able to present her case, thereby denying her access to justice.”
And “family law attorneys will be required to charge clients for increased travel time thereby increasing the cost for these services to those struggling with difficult circumstances,” Ricks said.
“In civil matters, including personal injury claims and business disputes, the costs associated with handling these matters increase (and those costs are ultimately passed on to the western Inland Empire residents and businesses).”
While there is some sacrifice required in the new plans, Slough said they are working to provide as many services as they can.
The court is working to implement more online services regarding family law issues or domestic violence protective orders, and they are trying to reduce wait time in mediation by looking into re-engineering how they process cases.
“This plan maximizes limited services, but it does have a cost,” said Stephen Nash, court executive officer for San Bernardino County Superior Court.
