LASC is innovating in the face of budget cuts

On Oct. 2, the Daily Journal ran a "Perspectives" piece titled, "Judging is hard (even for the temporary kind)," authored by attorney Thomas M. Hall. Mr. Hall made several assertions in his opinion piece that warrant comment by the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Any court user who has had contact with the court lately cannot help but notice that the court is undergoing major technological changes and improvements. The improvements are long overdue. For example, the court will transition from 40 different repositories of case information to two case management systems. The court will replace DOS-based case management systems with current technology. The case management systems will replace the recording of adoption proceedings that has been accomplished by handwritten entries that are then typed into an Excel spreadsheet.

These technological improvements have already increased access to the court. For example, a traffic violator can easily and quickly find answers to frequently asked questions on the court's website through an avatar. Litigants can electronically file pleadings in probate matters long after the clerk's office closes. Litigants in personal injury matters can deliver documents to the court electronically, eliminating the need for a bike messenger to wend her way through traffic in a mad dash to deliver a document to court before it closes.

The list of technological improvements is long and these improvements increase access to justice. The cost savings to the court in the face of sustained and enormous budget cuts is significant and will minimize continued shut downs of courtrooms, courthouses, and court services.

One of the goals of undertaking what is tantamount to a technological revolution at the Los Angeles County Superior Court is to reduce the amount of paper filed in the courts. Currently, if the court were to stack the paper files it maintains one on top of the other, the pile would be 13-times taller than Mt. Everest! To that end, new case management systems enable a judicial officer to view and annotate documents and pleadings electronically by viewing scanned images of case documents on a computer monitor in what is called a "judicial benchview." Over time, most litigants will electronically file court documents.

The court is keenly aware of the fact that the technology innovations will change the way judicial officers prepare their cases, handle their calendars, and conduct trials and evidentiary hearings. As a result, the court has developed a team devoted to training and educating judicial officers that comprises court staff, technology experts, and judges. Every "roll-out" of a new technology application is preceded by in-person training of judges and commissioners by other judges and the distribution of user guides and video segments, among other training tools.

The court, at times, relies on experienced attorneys to serve as temporary judges when judicial officers are not available. In order to be certified as a temporary judge, an attorney must meet certain requirements (e.g., be a member of the bar for at least 10 years, be in good standing with the State Bar), satisfy a robust training process (including, mandatory in-person training, review of written materials, and online training), and be recertified every three years. In some disciplines, including family law, a temporary judge aspirant must go through a vetting process by submitting a letter of interest and resume to the supervising judge of family law for approval.

Because temporary judges carry out many of the same judicial functions as a judge or commissioner, he or she must also be familiar with court technology enhancements, namely, how to access and view case files electronically rather than in paper form. Cognizant of this, every "roll out" of a new technology application includes mandatory in-person training of members of the Temporary Judge Program and access to the "benchview" application when the attorney sits on a temporary judge assignment. In September, family law judicial officers began to work in an electronic environment on the benchview application. After the court conducted training for its judicial officers, the court also held two training sessions for family law attorneys who are members of the court's Temporary Judge Program to enable them to access and view cases and documents on the judicial benchview.

Contrary to Mr. Hall's assertion in his article that temporary judges "aren't allowed to" read case files and documents on "the new computers," once a temporary judge has attended training on the new benchview application, she or he will absolutely have access to case files electronically and will be expected to access the files using the benchview tool. In fact, this was the very purpose of the two training sessions that the court held and is required for family law temporary judges. (According to Los Angeles County Superior Court records, Mr. Hall has never served as a temporary judge in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.)

The assertion that temporary judges "don't get access to the new system's computers in the morning, or after the court shuts down in the afternoon," is also incorrect and reflects a lack of understanding of how the temporary judge program has operated in the past. Historically, temporary judges could not access the paper files prior to the day of the temporary judge's assignment. For example, if the attorney was assigned to handle a matter or calendar at 8:30 a.m., the paper files would be made available to the temporary judge that morning when he or she arrived at the courthouse. Similarly, if the temporary judge wanted to review the files after he or she finished the calendar or assignment that day, the papers files would be available to him or her in the courtroom. This is not different in the digital world.

When the temporary judge arrives at the courtroom on the day of his or her assignment, court staff will provide access to the computer and benchview that will enable the temporary judge to review the files before the temporary judge is ready to begin court proceedings. The temporary judge will have ample time to review the cases and documents, research legal issues, if necessary, and adequately prepare for the assignment, just like the temporary judge did when the files were in paper form.

Finally, the technological innovations and electronic files will enable all judicial officers to thoroughly prepare for their cases and carry out their duties and responsibilities without undermining the public's confidence in the system or the public's "trust that the system is providing just and equitable review of people's arguments." In fact, the opposite is true. The Los Angeles County Superior Court is confident that with the cost savings, efficiencies, and increased access to justice that technology improvements have already achieved and will continue to achieve, the public's trust and confidence in the fairness of the legal system will significantly increase as the court strives to continue to serve the public in the face of drastic cuts to the court's budget.