How does the Courts Budget Crisis affect my family issues?
The California State Budget Crisis has drastically affected the courts. Financial cuts have significantly decreased access to the legal process through traditional court litigation. There have been massive cuts in the court budgets, resulting in reduced court staff, less courtrooms, and thus increased delays and wait times for litigants. For you this means, that if you want to resolve your disputes in court, you will have to wait longer for a hearing date, wait longer on the day of your hearing for your case to be heard, and have substantially longer document processing times. The Los Angeles County Supervising Judge of the Family Law Departments has stated that wait times for hearings, trials and other family law court process are expected to continue. Already the courts in Los Angeles County are closed the third Wednesday of each month, and more cuts and closures are expected. Fortunately, documents sent by cases in the Collaborative Process are given priority.
