During the past year, the Access Commission joined other partners in a concentrated effort to generate new resources to support legal services programs. One of these new resources is funding from federal block grants to support services to crime victims (VOCA grants). Historically, many states have included legal aid programs among the recipients of the funding for the legal work they do for crime victims/survivors. California, however, has not been one of these states. The Access Commission, partnered with the State Bar and the Legal Aid Association of California to educate the state about the range of assistance that legal services organizations provide to crime victims and urged inclusion of legal aid providers as eligible applicants for future grants. As a result of these efforts, VOCA grant opportunities are now open to legal aid providers. California has released over $30 million in new grant opportunities available to legal aid to support legal assistance for crime victims. Recently, Lisa Foster, Director of the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Access to Justice, recognized the success and valuable work of the Access Commission in her keynote address during the 2016 Equal Justice Conference. 

 

As we go forward, the Access Commission will continue to focus on securing stable funding for legal service providers so that they have adequate resources to serve the legal needs of low-income Californians.

Despite being a co-equal branch of government, California's judiciary receives only 1.4% of total funds disbursed from the State's General Fund. The good news is that things are improving, slowly but steadily, with this year's proposed budget.

 

Our Chief Justice, Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, recently applauded the Governor's proposed 2016-2017 budget. "We welcome the Governor's proposed budget for the judicial branch as it would provide $146.3 million in crucial new funding for our courts. Much of the new funding would be focused on innovations to benefit court users at all levels of our court system. The proposed budget reflects a steady but cautious new investment in the judicial branch since fiscal year 2012-2013." The Chief Justice noted that the Governor's proposed budget "would help make courts more accessible, efficient, and equitable for court users."

 

Yet the court system remains in crisis, due to low funding levels. Consider that the recently released budget for 2016-2017, with a proposed court funding level of $3.63 billion, actually provides less money to the judiciary than was available almost ten years ago, in 2007-2008, when the actual budget reached $3.72 billion. (See Governor's Budget Summary 2016-2017 at p. 117.)

 

A snapshot of the state's largest court system, in Los Angeles County, illustrates both the persisting budgetary difficulties, and the slow improvement in funding and access to justice. Currently, the Los Angeles Superior Court is funded at less than 70% of its workload-based funding need. This funding gap limits necessary workforce expansion to fill basic needs, including staff to expand access to justice, reduce delays and backlogs by restoring full-service courtrooms, and bring back court-employed court reporters. (Unlike many court systems, Los Angeles County continues to require civil litigants to provide, and pay for, their own court reporters.)

 

But the funding gap in Los Angeles has decreased since 2013, from 45% to 31%. This has enabled the Los Angeles Superior Court to implement a traffic ticket/infraction amnesty program; to greatly expand interpreter services in juvenile dependency, elder and dependent abuse, unlawful detainers, domestic violence, probate/conservatorship and guardianship matters, civil harassment, family law and small claims cases; to begin replacement of the outdated case management systems, with an anticipated roll-out date of September 2017; and to create efficiencies with the implementation of paperless traffic courtrooms, online self-scheduling of hearings in civil cases, reduced wait time for mediations and child custody evaluations in family law departments, and other improvements.

 

Increasing access to justice for all Californians presents a continuing challenge to our judiciary. The California Commission on Access to Justice joins with our Chief Justice in applauding the recent proposed increase in funding for the judicial branch, which represents a step in the right direction for attaining our society's essential aspiration of equal justice for all.