Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, lamented closed courts and other cutbacks in her annual state of the judiciary speech last week.
"Justice requires a court," she told state legislators. "But what we once counted on - that courts would be open, available and ready to dispense prompt justice - no longer exists in California."
Cantil-Sakauye gave her speech an added dimension with the story of Clarence Gideon, a Florida convict whose hand-written appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court resulted in a landmark 1963 decision affirming the right of every criminal defendant to have legal counsel.
"Think of Mr. Gideon," she concluded. "Justice for all."
For all her eloquence, few Californians heard the chief justice's speech. For that matter, relatively few people know just how many courts have been closed and cases indefinitely postponed because of budget cuts over the past several years.
No doubt those cuts combined with a lack of public awareness are a source of anxiety for Cantil-Sakauye. Maybe it's also the catalyst for an astonishingly bad idea to raise money for the courts - charging $10 for so much as a peek at any file in any courthouse.
The $10-per-file service fee is one of several statutory changes submitted to the state Legislature by the Judicial Council for possible inclusion in one of the trailer bills required to implement the state budget.
The fee originated in closed-door meetings of a working group comprised of judges and clerks, according to a Courthouse News Service report. It was included in budget language approved without comment by the Judicial Council, the policymaking arm of the court system. Cantil-Sakauye chairs the council.
The clerk's office at any courthouse is a hub of activity. There are lawyers and couriers filing lawsuits and other legal documents, and there are people who need to review them - judges and more lawyers, of course, but also journalists, private investigators, information services, legal researchers, students, watchdog groups and, of course, average citizens.
Arbitrary and excessive fees would put some information services out of business. Just as important, they would be a deterrent to journalists and citizens wanting to do research or to simply follow a court case.
Clerks already are allowed to charge a $15 fee to assist with searches that take more than 15 minutes. Courts also are legally entitled to charge more for copies than other public agencies. Moreover, the court's budget bill would double this fee, from $1 per page to $2 per page.
As the chief justice noted, courts lost two-thirds of their state funding over the past five years. Courtrooms have been closed, staff laid off and fees boosted, adding hundreds of dollars to a routine traffic citation, while just 1 percent of the general fund goes to the court system. "I submit to you that equal access to justice for 38 million Californians cannot be had for a penny on the dollar," Canti-Sakauye said.
Indeed, more funding is needed, but more price gouging will only push the state further from her goal of justice for all.
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