LAKE COUNTY ? The Superior Court of Lake County will be closed on the third Wednesday of each month, beginning Sept. 16 and continuing through June 16, 2010, as a result of a nearly $400 million reduction in the annual budget for the state”s trial courts. The closure days will be treated as holidays for the purposes of scheduling hearings and calculating filing deadlines.
California”s courts have resorted to court closures as a last resort in the face of unprecedented budget cuts of $393.3 million for fiscal year 2009 to 2010. In July, the state Legislature authorized the Judicial Council to close the superior courts, the Courts of Appeal, and the Supreme Court for one day per month. The Council designated the third Wednesday of each month as the day for closure. Statewide the closures are estimated to produce a savings of more than $94 million during the remainder of the fiscal year and other cost-saving measures will cover the rest of the reduction.
According to Presiding Judge Rick Martin, the Superior Court of Lake County received a budget reduction of $406,023 which is 11.9 percent of the Court”s budget for the 2009/10 fiscal year. The Court has had to make difficult decisions to absorb this budget reduction while still maintaining access to justice to the residents of Lake County. To help close the budget gap, all court employees including judges have agreed to take the court closure days as unpaid furlough days, which is a 4.62 percent reduction in pay. Court staff will continue to work very hard to minimize the impact that these closures will have on the public, however longer lines and longer wait times on the telephone should be expected.
Additional information is available on the California courts Web site, www.courtinfo.ca.gov.
