SACRAMENTO — On March 20, Kathleen O”Connor and Casse Waldman Forczek were escorted through the Halls of the State Capitol in Sacramento to meet their California government officials, State Assemblyman Wesley Chestro; and Saskia Kim, chief counsel of the California Senate Judiciary Committee. This Committee is chaired by Lake County”s California Senator Noreen Evans.
O”Connor and Forczek, who both work at the Lake County Law Library in Lakeport, participated in a three-day spring conference sponsored by the California Council of County Law Librarians (CCCLL), which consists of 59 county law libraries throughout California. Their goal was to discuss public and equal access to justice, describing the vital services provided by county law libraries and to discuss certain bills in both the California Senate and State Assembly.
Law libraries throughout California are being impacted by the increase in fee waivers, resulting in less revenue to function. The CCCLL focus is concern regarding the Uniform Civil Filing Fee.
Currently, people who are granted a fee waiver and win their case in court with a settlement or money judgment are not asked to pay back the court fees. A methodology is not yet in place to track this potential source of revenue.
CCCLL believes that retroactive fee waivers would help boost the revenue stream for the funding of the public law libraries, especially for small law libraries such as the one in Lakeport. Additionally there are the challenges for rural law librarians to offer help to laypeople and those who cannot pay a private attorney.
With the rise in court filing fee waivers, there is less funding for other programs like the law libraries. Their sole source of funding is a portion of filing fees. According to the CCCLL, it is expected that the filing fees issue will be in a Trailer Bill.
Both O”Connor and Forczek recommended that Kim favor Bill Senate Bill 1075 in the California Senate, which is calling for a system of high-security authentication of all electronic legal documents. SB 1075 is a standardization and verification of digital information from the legislature. In order for this to occur, specific legislation is necessary. The CCCLL supports SB 1075.
During their appointment with Chesbro, O”Connor and Forczek discussed current and future issues affecting the Lake County Law Library. They brought up Assembly Bill AB 1208 and their opposition to it. AB 1208, the Trial Court Act, calls for the de-centralization of trial court budgets to the local judges instead of management by the Administrative Office of the Courts.
During the three-day CCCLL Spring Conference, O”Connor and Forczek also had the opportunity to view first-hand Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye as she delivered her first State of the Judiciary address from the State Capitol. Cantil-Sakauye was elected in the November 2010 elections to replace Judge Golden. Cantil-Sakauye is the second female Chief Justice in California and the first Filipina to serve.
For information about the Lake County Law Library and its many services, stop in for a visit, Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 175 Third St. in Lakeport, across from the Courthouse) or take a tour on the website at: www.lakecountyca.gov/law. For more information, call 263-2205. For more information about the CCCLL, visit CCCLL.org.
