Feb. 1, 2014

Trial advocacy group holds Q&A with the state's chief justice

The falloff in the number of civil jury trials in California has largely matched the drop in revenue to the state's courts, Chief Justice Tami Cantil-Sakauye told members of the American Board of Trial Advocates on Saturday. In a short question-and-answer session with the new ABOTA national president, Mark P. Robinson Jr., the chief justice said the fact that fewer cases are going to trial is "indicative of judicial branch funding." The court system's budget has been slashed by about $1 billion since 2008, she said. Gov. Jerry Brown's latest budget proposal would return about $105 million to the courts, but Cantil-Sakauye held a press conference earlier this month to say they need more. "I thought it was time to drive home the message [about] what a fully funded [judicial] branch looks like," she said during the trial group's annual dinner. She held the unusual press event "to focus the conversation and move it forward," she said, and "to manage expectations if we don't get the money we need." ABOTA, co-founded more than 50 years ago by Robinson's father, Mark P. Robinson Sr., is dedicated to preserving the civil jury system. In answer to a question, the chief justice said that alternative dispute resolution can be useful and can "scrub a case to get it ready for trial." But it also "can get out of hand," she said. — Don J. DeBenedictis