New state Senate judiciary chair aims bill at court COVID challenges

A bill introduced this week aims to "address challenges in the judiciary as a result of the pandemic caused by COVID-19." But so far, SB 233 would merely make it the "intent of the Legislature" to send further help to courts.

It begins to make good on a pledge Sen. Thomas J. Umberg made when he was named chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee last month.

"The first priority is addressing what COVID has done to our system of civil justice in California," the Santa Ana Democrat told the Daily Journal after the bill was proposed Tuesday. "Trials are delayed. Courts are operating at skeleton status."

Reached Wednesday, a spokesperson for Umberg said he and his staff were working out the bill's details.

Judiciary committee chairs typically introduce several procedural bills each year to improve the operations of courts, sometimes at the request of the Judicial Council. Umberg has also introduced SB 211, a placeholder bill on annual bar fees, and SB 212, designed to limit discriminatory use of peremptory challenges.

Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, is entering his seventh year as chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. He has also pledged to examine ways to make courts more efficient, in part to address the stresses the pandemic has caused in the system, though he has yet to introduce any legislation on that topic so far.

The proposed 2021-22 state budget Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled on Jan. 8 includes $72.2 million to help courts address the backlog of cases that have built up during the court shutdowns and the pandemic.

But the Consumer Attorneys of California, a plaintiffs' lawyers group, quickly put out a statement expressing concern this money would only go to criminal cases without addressing the civil case backlog. According to legislative sources speaking on background, the budget subcommittees that oversee courts are already looking at additional funding to address costs of the pandemic.

Newsom also proposed $11.7 to help courts with a potential flood of unlawful detainer cases in the future since the courts stopped handling those cases for months. The Judicial Council and later the Legislature suspended these cases last year. Under the terms of AB 3088, which Newsom signed in September, tenants cannot be evicted until Feb. 1 for not paying their rent. A bill introduced earlier this month, AB 15, would extend that ban until Jan. 1, 2022.

The overall proposed spending plan would give courts about $172 million more than they received in the 2020-21 budget. Some additional money would go to long-delayed construction projects. This money would essentially get courts back to where they would have been under Newsom's proposed spending plan last year, before the historic cuts imposed after the pandemic.

But the backlogs have created an additional burden that didn't exist a year ago, most notably in Los Angeles County, which faces a backlog of at least 7,000 criminal cases. The court announced new policies on contact tracing on Jan. 15 after a clerk and an interpreter recently died from the virus.

The latest reported virus surge is creating additional problems. The Sacramento County Superior Court announced on Jan. 8 that it is extending its suspension of jury trials through Jan. 29 "in direct response to the current health environment." Several other large courts have announced extended deadlines and new remote services this month, including Orange, San Diego and Santa Clara.