By Jennifer Smith
State lawmakers — have you heard that slashing judicial budgets could end up costing your state more money in the long run than it saves?
If not, don’t blame the legal community, which has been beating the drum on this for months at hearings, in reports, and on newspaper op-ed pages.
“Really, we’ve cut to the bone,” former Solicitor General Ted Olson told the Law Blog over the weekend at an American Bar Association meeting in New Orleans. “We’re now into the bone and finding the marrow. It is that serious a problem.”
Over the past year the bar has teamed up with business interests and non-profits to sound the alarm about the crisis, which many in the legal community say has delayed justice, dampened economic growth and shut down access to the legal system for many low-and-middle income Americans.
Lawyers have skin in the game for two reasons. Yes, they have a professional duty to preserve the justice system.
But a clogged court system can also end up wasting attorneys’ time and costing them money. An economist testifying at an ABA hearing in Georgia last year found that a 2002 court budget cut in Los Angeles, which shuttered 29 courtrooms, also appeared to put the brake on local lawyers’ compensation, which fell behind “Houston, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and the U.S. as a whole.”
Olson leads an ABA task force on the subject with fellow legal heavy David Boies. Onetime adversaries in Bush v. Gore, the two litigators have also teamed up to battle California’s ban on same-sex marriage (see WSJ’s latest on that here).
On this issue, their job is, in part, to lend their joint star power to a problem that they say has few lobbyists pleading its cause to cash-strapped legislatures.
Last year 42 states cut judicial funding, according to the National Center for State Courts. The reductions come as poverty levels rise and states continue to pass new laws that essentially act as unfunded mandates because they increase the number of cases coming into the court system, Olson said.
“The problem with these cuts is in part that it’s making the justice system much more costly, and much less efficient, than it would otherwise be,” said Boies, during a break from yet another hearing on the issue at New Orleans Sheraton. “So you think you’re saving a million dollars by cutting the judicial budget. But in fact you’re incurring tens of millions of dollars of costs on consumers of the justice system who now have to wait, have to travel, have to incur additional fees — have to just generally have justice delayed.”
People are waiting weeks or months for probation officers and orders of protection, they said, and business disputes can extend into decade-long battles. In Minnesota, court offices now keep shorter hours, according to the ABA. In New Hampshire, judicial vacancies remain unfilled. In Albuquerque, the backlog of court filings meant the district court clerk’s office laid off key judicial staff to hire entry-level clerks and institute night shifts to keep documents flowing throw the system.
“There aren’t any remaining efficiencies that can be squeezed out,” Boies said. “Now what you’re doing is you’re cutting essential services. You’re eliminating health insurance for some judges. You are closing courthouses. You are forcing people in some counties to bring their own paper if they want to get a copy of a court order. You have chief Justices having to beg suppliers for pens and pencils and paper for their clerks.”
Delays also cost lawyers money. They might spend weeks preparing for trial, only to arrive at court and be told to come back in three months because there aren’t any courtrooms.
“Now the case has to be prepared all over again, the witnesses have to be subpoenaed, blah, blah, blah,” Olson said. “The cost is enormous and much of it can’t be passed on to the client.”
The issue has united supporters as disparate as the NAACP and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform.
“If you don’t have a reliable way of enforcing contracts, if don’t have a reliable way of resolving disputes, you can’t run efficient businesses,” Boies said. “We’re turning into a third-world country in terms of our administration of justice in some areas.”
State lawmakers—do you know that slashing judicial budgets could end up costing your state more money than it saves?
If not, don’t blame the legal community, which has been beating the drum on this for months (see here and here and here). At hearings, in reports, and on newspaper op-ed pages, the bar has teamed up with business interests and non-profits to sound the alarm about a crisis that they say has delayed justice, dampened economic growth and shut down access to the legal system for many low-and-middle income Americans.
“Really, we’ve cut to the bone,” former Solicitor General Ted Olson told the Law Blog over the weekend at an American Bar Association meeting in New Orleans. “We’re now into the bone and finding the marrow. It is that serious a problem.”
Olson and fellow legal heavy David Boies—sporting his trademark comfy black shoes—were in town for yet another hearing before an ABA task force they jointly head on the subject. Onetime adversaries in Bush v. Gore, the two litigators have also teamed up to battle California’s ban on same-sex marriage (see WSJ’s latest on that here).
On this issue, their job is, in part, to lend their joint star power to a problem that they say has few lobbyists pleading its cause to cash-strapped legislatures. Last year 42 states cut judicial funding, according to the National Center for State Courts. The reductions come as poverty levels rise and states continue to pass new laws that essentially act as unfunded mandates because they increate intake at the court level.
“The problem with these cuts is in part that it’s making the justice system much more costly, and much less efficient, than it would otherwise be,” said Boies. “So you think you’re saving a million dollars by cutting the judicial budget. But in fact you’re incurring tens of millions of dollars of costs on consumers of the justice system who now have to wait, have to travel, have to incur additional fees—have to just generally have justice delayed.”
People are waiting for probation officers and orders of protection, they said, and business disputes can extend into decade-long battles.
In Minnesota, court offices now keep shorter hours, according to the ABA. In New Hampshire, judicial vacancies remain unfilled. In Albuquerque, the backlog of court filings meant the district court clerk’s office laid off key judicial staff to hire entry-level clerks and institute night shifts to keep documents flowing throw the system.
“There aren’t any remaining efficiencies that can be squeezed out,” Boies said. “Now what you’re doing is you’re cutting essential services. You’re eliminating health insurance for some judges. You are closing courthouses. You are forcing people in some counties to bring their own paper if they want to get a copy of a court order. You have chief Justices having to beg suppliers for pens and pencils and paper for their clerks.”
Of course there is a healthy degree of self-interest in this for lawyers as well. Delays cost lawyers money. They might spend weeks preparing for trial, only to arrive at court and be told to come back in three months because there aren’t any courtrooms.
“Now the case has to be prepared all over again, the witnesses have to be subpoenaed, blah, blah, blah,” Olson said. “The cost is enormous and much of it can’t be passed on to the client.”
An economist testifying at on hearing last year found that an earlier budget cut in Los Angeles in 2002, which shuttered 29 courtrooms, also appeared to put the brake on local lawyers’ compensation. Lawyer pay in Los Angeles increased at a “much lower rate than similar communities in the country—Houston, Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, and the U.S. as a whole.”
The issue has united as disparate supporters as the NAACP and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform.
“If you don’t have a reliable way of enforcing contracts, if don’t have a reliable way of resolving disputes, you can’t run efficient businesses,” Boies said. “We’re turning into a third-world country in terms of our administration of justice in some areas.”