The American Bar Association has been pretty relentless in advocating adequate and stable funding for courts. Although many courts have been horribly hit with budget reductions, there are court systems that think the movement to cut budgets has bottomed out. There are even courts that are cautiously optimistic that some modest budget increases might be achievable. None of that is happening in California.  

Chief Justice: New Cuts To State Court Funding “Devastating”

by Bay City News

 California Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye said today that Gov. Brown’s planned additional cuts of $544 million in state court funding in the next fiscal year “are both devastating and disheartening.”

“They will seriously compromise the public’s access to their courts and our ability to provide equal access to justice throughout the state,” Cantil-Sakauye said in a statement issued in San Francisco.

Jon Streeter, a San Francisco lawyer who is president of the California State Bar, called the cuts “unsustainable.”

“All courts are going to feel the pain, even those that have managed well so far,” Streeter said. For the complete article see:

http://sfappeal.com/news/2012/05/chief-justice-new-cuts-to-state-court-funding-devastating.php.  

 The fiscal problems of California as a state have been widely reported. In a sense, California is a state with few good fiscal options. But at least for the time being, legislators are listening to California court leaders.  A California Senate panel decided Tuesday to postpone a vote on two key measures proposed as part of Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget to restructure trial court funding by setting up a statewide reserve and to halt court construction projects, after officials warned that the cuts would devastate the judicial branch.