Indio highlights Riverside County judge shortage

Indio is the third valley city to act on the shortage

By Anna Rumer, The Desert Sun

In light of a judge shortage dubbed a "judicial crisis" in Riverside County, Indio City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to join three desert cities in strongly urging Gov. Jerry Brown and state legislators to take action.

Riverside County has one of the highest caseloads per judge in the state, second only to San Bernardino County, a substandard ratio that has led to significant delays in court proceedings in superior courts such as those in Indio's Larson Justice Center, according to the state Judicial Council.

In 2014, 423,340 filings were made in Riverside County Superior Court including 18,195 felonies and 41,731 misdemeanors — an increase of 18 percent since 1993, according to court data.

That adds up to a caseload of more than 5,570 filings that have to be handled by each of the county's 76 judges, including almost eight jury trials that must be presided over.

In order to make it back to an acceptable ratio, the state estimates that an additional 51 judges would have to be hired in Riverside County — nearly 67 percent of the current judges who preside in the county.

Areas such as Santa Clara and Alameda counties have been dubbed “overjudged” by as many as 19 judges.

“It’s always been this way in Riverside County,” Indio Mayor Glenn Miller said. “Meanwhile there’s a glutton of judges up in Northern California.”

"There is a critical shortage of judges relative to the workload needs in California’s trial courts," the Judicial Council said in its 2014 report. "The public’s right to timely access to justice is contingent on having adequate judicial resources in every jurisdiction."

A population increase of almost 50 percent in the last 16 years combined with budgetary downfalls have been the cause of Riverside County's "acute" need for judges.

All civil cases in Riverside Superior Court were suspended for more than a month in 2005 while overtaxed judges worked to chip away at the backlog of criminal cases.

"The public’s right to timely access to justice should not be contingent on the resource levels in the county in which they reside or bring their legal disputes," the Judicial Council ruled. "All Californians deserve to have the proper number of judicial officers for the workload in their jurisdiction.”

A bill introduced by Sen. Richard Roth of northwestern Riverside County made it through both houses of the legislature in 2015 and offered $5 million in funding for 12 more superior court judgeships. Three of these appointments were likely to be given to Riverside County and four to San Bernardino County.

“The judicial shortages in Inland Southern California are frankly a public safety and social justice crisis,” Roth said.

Not one legislator voted against the bill as it made its way through the house and senate, but when it made it to Brown's desk on Oct. 8, he refused to sign it.

“I am aware that the need for judges in many courts is acute – Riverside and San Bernardino are two clear examples," he said in the veto message. "However, before funding any new positions, I intend to work with the Judicial Council to develop a more systematic approach to balance the workload and the distribution of judgeships around the state.”

In the proposed 2016-17 state budget he released in January, Brown recommended working with the Judicial Council to reallocate up to five vacant judgeships in order to shift judges where the caseloads are the highest without adding to the total number of judges in the state.

The proposed resolution Indio City Council members approved Wednesday was initially brought forward by Palm Desert Mayor Pro Tem Jan Harnik at the Feb. 29 Executive Commission meeting of the Coachella Valley Association of Governments and has since been approved by Coachella, Palm Desert and La Quinta councils.

The resolution "strongly urges" that Brown, the Judicial Council and the legislature work together in light of Brown's veto and subsequent recommendation and allocate the money for judges in Riverside and San Bernardino counties "so that all California residents can enjoy equal access to justice."

Miller hopes that if the cities’ words don’t fall on deaf ears, judges from Northern California could either be relocated in Riverside County or have the money allocated for their positions transferred.

Ideally, he hopes that more could be done at the courthouse in Banning as well as in Palm Springs so people won’t have to travel as far nor wait as long to alleviate their legal issues.

“Everyone has the right to a speedy trial,” he said. “It’s just important for our community.”