Over the last five budget years, California has seen nearly $1 billion in cumulative budget cuts to the courts of California.  The courts are now severely crippled.  The San Diego Superior Court is dealing with $33 million in budget cuts enacted by the State Legislature.  Those cuts have resulted in the reductions of more than 170 court positions and the closing of 20 courtrooms.

Deep reduction of funding all across the state has resulted in courthouse closures, reduced numbers of courtrooms, drastically cut hours and services, large numbers of lay-offs of staff, long lines and higher fees.

Reduction in court personnel is causing a dramatic shift of caseloads onto already overburdened judges and clerks.  Civil departments are sharing calendar clerks, and civil judges are handling unthinkable numbers of cases, often into the high hundreds to over a thousand, without adequate support.  Judges and staff are soldiering forward, but things have been really tough for them.   Family law and probate courts are also severely impacted.

As of November 5, 2012, the San Diego Superior Court has not been supplying court reporters for civil matters.  Parties are responsible for hiring and paying for their own reporters for all proceedings, including trials.  If they do not do so, there is no record of the proceedings.

Hearing dates are becoming more difficult to obtain.  We are also now seeing delays in processing of paperwork, and on one occasion, the total loss of court-filed papers which were eventually found, with great apologies from the court.  The case involved an elderly disabled man who could ill afford a delay in compensation in his matter, which had already settled and was merely waiting approval.

The implications these cuts have on litigants is quite serious.  We are working hard to press our matters forward to trial despite the constraints.  If you have any questions about the impact of the budget crisis on your pending matter with us, please give us a call.

If you would like to learn more, here are three recent articles from the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register, and the San Diego Union Tribune:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-court-cutbacks-20130410,0,3144605.story

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/court-388184-courts-budget.html

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/Mar/11/chief-justice-urges-reinvestment-in-calif-courts/all/

As we approach Mother’s Day, we are reflecting on the hardworking mothers of special needs children we have represented.  It’s a difficult, often lonely job raising a child with developmental disabilities.  We have an ongoing commitment to making a difference in the lives of these mothers and their families.  Our advocacy on behalf of special needs children and their parents has been continuous over the last couple of decades.

We receive many inquiries about the unfortunate demise of babies before or at term. More than one million babies die on the day they are born every year worldwide, according to a report from Save the Children, a non-profit with the mission to improve the lives of kids in need around the world.  A recent article in USA Today discusses some very simple products that can save newborns.  http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2137163

More frequently, however, we get calls about infants relating to injuries suffered during the birth process, and we see children diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, Erb’s Palsy and other neurological conditions.  Changes in the health care system have led to an increase in the number of deliveries handled by doctors and nurses without adequate training and experience.  As we represent children and mothers who have been injured through negligence, we also seek to foster change that will ensure similar mistakes are not made again.

Due to the length of our experience in this area, we also link our clients with experts, resources, technology, research and developments that may aid in therapy and adaptive assistance for the children, as well as sources of aid for the parents, such as respite care.

New developments in treatment and therapies are assisting some of these children.  As an example, we note some increase in function found in babies who have been through hypothermia, or “cooling” protocol, immediately after birth.  This therapeutic hypothermia is a medical treatment that lowers the baby’s body temperature in order to help reduce the severity of damage to tissue after the brain has been deprived of oxygen and the body of blood flow.  The children we are encountering who have had access to this treatment do seem to fare better than those without it.

Among the extraordinary people we have had the privilege to represent, we look this week to the loving mothers of these beautiful children, and wish them peace, safety and health.