How are California Court Resources Allocated?

CalBizLit is not a litigation reform blawg, and takes no generalized position on whether there is too much or too little litigation.  My firm and I have represented corporate clients as plaintiffs in highly meritorious litigation, and defended irresponsible suits filed by both individuals and companies.  We take a jaundiced view of certain types of litigation as a class (Proposition 65 litigation immediately springs to mind, although I realize that this warning/toxics law is wildly popular with California voters, and CalBizLit does believe in democracy).  But for the most part, there are righteous suits and bogus suits, and generalizing about any particular type of litigation (or litigant) is not very productive.  It is also CalBizLit’s official position that solving disputes through the litigation process sure beats most of the alternatives.

Having said that, perhaps because of my civil law background, I’ve always assumed that the civil justice system used an awful lot of resources.  Thus, I was pretty startled to see the statistics in the most recent Judicial Council of California Report on California court filings and allocation of court resources.  According to the Judicial Council:

• Filings for tort, personal injury, property damage, wrongful death and other civil complaints in general civil matters (where the amount in controversy exceeds $25,000) comprised a mere 1.88% of all filings in the Superior Courts during the 2005 – 2006 fiscal year;

• Limited civil matters (under $25,000 at stake) and small claims matters ($5,000 or less) accounted for 8.03% of the filings;  and

• All civil matters combined were responsible for 18.2% of the state-wide judges’ work load.  Family and juvenile matters were responsible for 29.2% of the workload and criminal matters a thumping 49.3% of the workload.

Off Topic Post

I'm so looking forward to seeing Allan Toussaint at this weekend's San Francisco Blues Festival.  He's a national treasure, and if you haven't seen him, you should.  Here's some Mr. Toussaint on You Tube for your Friday afternoon.