Recently, the Judicial Council conducted an “urgent open meeting” to approve a rule change allowing drivers to fight their traffic tickets without having to post bail first. The Chief Justice described the meeting as “historic” and characterized the Council’s action as ”an important first step to address an urgent access-to-justice issue.” The Council’s actions come in the wake of recent sharp criticisms from the ACLU of Northern California and a blistering report by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area and others.
The Alliance welcomes any move to bring a measure of sanity to the madness that pervades our system of traffic-related fines and fees, under which a $100 ticket can balloon into a $490 debt. Predictably, many people simply can’t afford to pay their bloated traffic fines. Those of us who work in mass arraignment courts are all too familiar with the cycle of unpaid fees, missed court appearances, bench warrants, and license suspensions. The Legislative Analyst’s Office has calculated that over $10 billion in court-ordered fines and fees has gone uncollected. According to the LCCR report, more than four million Californians have had their licenses suspended because of failures to appear or failures to pay. In the context of these oppressively high fines and fees, the Judicial Council’s latest move makes sense.
But let’s not kid ourselves. Our branch leadership, which is now applauding itself for its bold and decisive action, has been a big part of the problem for years.
Our leaders certainly can’t claim that they weren’t aware of the crisis in fines and fees, or of the unfairness of requiring people to pay in full before their trials. Vehicle Code, § 40519, the statute requiring bail to be posted before contesting a traffic ticket, has been on the books in one form or another for almost 50 years. Only now has the judicial branch leadership deemed the issue “urgent” enough for action.
So what has the branch leadership been doing about the situation up until now? They’ve been talking about the problem of fines and fees—and doing little else about it—for years. In characteristic fashion, the Council created a committee, the Court-Ordered Debt Task Force, back in 2011. According to its most recent agenda, this task force is supposed to “evaluate various aspects of the criminal and traffic-related court-ordered fees, fines, forfeitures, penalties.” But according to its website, it hasn’t done much of anything since 2013.
The Council also has a Traffic Advisory Committee. We’re not sure what it does. All of its many meetings, including those discussing the bail issue, have been closed to the public.
Our branch’s responsibility for the fine-and-fee morass extends beyond its inaction. We have to own up to the fact that our branch has lobbied hard for many of the fees and assessments that have caused traffic fines to swell to such grotesque proportions. The Judicial Council sponsored SB 1407, the bill that tacked a $35 assessment onto every infraction and a $5 penalty for every $10 of the base fine. The Council cosponsored SB 857, which raised the court operations assessment (Pen. Code, § 1465.8, subd. (a)) to $40. On a $100 traffic ticket fine, that’s an additional $125 that gets tacked on to fund the courts. Most of that money goes to the court construction program.
If the judiciary is going to fund its multi-billion-dollar courthouse construction campaign with money that comes disproportionately from the poor, it had better spend that money prudently. And it hasn’t. The AOC and the Council built a $4.7 million wooden courthouse in snow country, just to close it four years later. Under the terms of an “innovative” public-private partnership, they agreed to pay up to $62 million a year for 35 years for the Long Beach courthouse. They propose to spend over $500 million on the new San Diego courthouse. They have spent hundreds of millions building courthouses that now sit half-empty because of staffing cuts.
It’s time for an accounting. It’s time for the Legislature to authorize an audit of the construction program, just as they audited the rest of the AOC’s operations. That audit uncovered hundreds of millions of dollars in AOC spending that should have gone to fund the trial courts. We believe that an audit of the construction program would uncover even more.
Streamline the Council. Open the meetings. And audit the construction funds.
Directors, Alliance of California Judges
Stuart Michael
July 2, 2015
I was an appointed member of the Traffic Advisory Comm about 15 years ago
The work was very technical – even for the judges and administrators, who were usually experienced in Traffic. We had a very good long-time AOC staff member to work with, and a lot of our work was done by phone between quarterly meetings in SF. Travel expenses were paid by the AOC. I was the only committee member who had both judicial and and administrative experience in Traffic Court. After 2 or 3 years I was not reappointed as part of normal rotation of membership.
Since fines and fees were a lot lower then, 40519 did not appear to be a problem, but since there was little public input except from agencies and others who fed on the fines and PA’s,it was rarely discussed.. Economic impacts on motorists were not considered- of course we were all fairly well-paid court employees, many of whom couldn’t relate to this problem unless they served in big cities or rural areas with a lot of “poor folks”
We had “closed” meetings even though there probably should have been some public input. However, many studies have shown that higher fines are an effective deterrent to repeat violators – even to DUI’s.
We revised the Uniform Bail Schedule annually – always upward – and recommended changes to the Vehicle Code
VC40519 had been around for many years but was not used by most Muni Cts at that time.
Where implemented it did cut down on court trial FTA’s
Trial by Declaration also didn’t require posting bail in advance, although I can also say that review of a bunch of declarations at the end of a busy judicial day could be quite perfunctory
My recent experience with a red light camera ticket in Daly City shows how difficult and expensive it is to fight it – even for a retired court employee with a decent pension and lots of court experience, so I finally gave up and went to on-line traffic school, a pretty worthless “educational” option that brings in big $$ for the operators and CTSI, and “extra” money to the courts. When I finally withdrew my request for trial at least the Traffic Commissioner waived the $49 admin fee, and the TVS fee was only $11.95 – the only “bargain” in the whole process- ain’t competition great!. Of course the photo clearly shows I ran the light. If I went to court I might have been able to show how confusing that stretch of roadway could be, especially to a out-of-town motorist who was not familiar with the area
what a system!
wearyant
July 2, 2015
The LCCR put together an excellent, comprehensive report. Very impressive, with the life examples. That, plus the ACLU, and who knows what else caused the creeps in power to get extremely nervous about how they appear to others — that’s of great importance to them, their self-image — and they moved mtns and got it done. Even if once in a blue moon these people do something right, it is always in their own self-interest. Yes, too little, too late. Tani’s Team was only concerned with how they are perceived. They don’t give a damn about the public. That’s been proved over and over again by their actions.
Thanks, JCW, for posting the ACJ’s great letter keeping all informed and for getting to the next level of turning the third branch Titanic turned around. The pressure must continue to audit the construction section. We’re all in the lifeboats together.
unionman575
July 3, 2015
http://www.courts.ca.gov/rupromeetings.htm
Rules and Projects Committee
July 6, 2015, Teleconference
4:00 p.m.
Call-in Number: 1-877-820-7831,
Public Access Code: 4653278 (listen only)
😉
Posted on: 7/2/2015
😉
unionman575
July 3, 2015
http://www.courts.ca.gov/ctac.htm
Court Technology Advisory Committee
July 10, 2015 CTAC Meeting
10:00 a.m. to 11:25 a.m. Open Meeting
11:25 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Nonpublic Meeting
😉
Public Call-In Number 1-877-820-7831
Public Access Code # # 4348559
Posted on: July 2, 2015
😉
unionman575
July 3, 2015
sharonkramer
July 3, 2015
So, is this right?
Basically, the JC has held the public for ransom to fund construction of opulent mausoleums and shines to themselves.
Those too poor to pay the ransom have been driven deeper into poverty by the hardship of not being able to drive to work. Their lives have been devastated and tax dollars are now used to pay for their survival.
Cantil-Sakauye has been CJ for over four years. She and her fellow JC members did nothing to correct the perversion of justice until the ACLU and the media brought the problem to public sunlight.
Caught red-handed and given no choice but to stop the practice, Cantil-Sayauke then waved to the little people while falsely promoting to them that she is their protector of justice and champion of their rights.
Because the traffic fine funding has dried up, the JC is sure to try to take more money from the already starving trial courts to continue to construct their shrines.
A recent act indicative of their intent, the Efficiency and Accountability Committee tried to take control the trial courts’ funding to be administered in virtual secrecy.
Given the known nature of the beast, an additional audit is direly needed to direct efficient use of construction funds w/o further hampering the trial courts’ abilities to serve the public.
sharonkramer
July 4, 2015
Its being reported by the complaintant to the Bar, that Richard Huffman II’s licensed is suspended. Appears to be true. http://members.calbar.ca.gov/courtDocs/14-H-05972-2.pdf
Wendy Darling
July 5, 2015
Well, isn’t that interesting . . .
Guess the proverbial apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Long live the ACJ.
sharonkramer
July 5, 2015
“In light of the foregoing, discipline consisting of one year of stayed suspension and one year of probation with conditions including 30 days of actual suspension will best serve the goals of protecting the public, thc courts, and the legal profession; maintaining high professional standards for attorneys; and preserving public confidence in the legal profession.”
Thirty days. That’s approximately sixty days less than an innocent man — father of three small children –spent in jail because Huffman Jr. failed to timely file a Notice of Appeal, lied to his client that it had been filed, and then tried to convince his client that an appeal was not a good idea. Had the client not dug a little deeper to see Huffman did not file the Notice — the whole thing would have been swept under the rug.
AND that’s only a small portion of the story. The day Bonnie Dumanis was re-elected as DA in June of 2014, the man was contacted by her office and told there would be a new trial (after a 4th/1st opinion that the 1st trial was unfair — think they had no choice after Jr’s screw up and his daddy’s court hearing the embarassing matter). Dumanis didn’t even wait for the final election results to come in before he was terrorized that he and his family would have to go thru more harassment.
It was later decided that the DA would drop the charges because the man had already served time and had subsequently been a law abiding citizen. He had ALWAYS been a law abiding citizen. But now he’s one who is financially ruined.
Basically, its the same old story. Unlawful actions were taken in the San Diego County legal/law enforcement community– and the wagons were circled to try to cover it up by bullying and harassing the victim. In addition to all else, the Sheriff Dept lost the shot gun (evidence) that they unlawfully took from the man’s home.
Some of the back story — but not even close to all of it.
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2013/jul/10/feature-trouble-shotgun/
katy
July 5, 2015
I got this picture my inbox attached to an article titled, “Maybe its time to terminate”
Article intro is, “Terminator Genisys’ is unnecessarily complicated by so many time twists and warps that even an ardent fan of the franchise must admit that its future is behind it.”
The double-entendre of this picture, article title, and description as it relates to damages from the Schwarzenegger/George/JC backed SB 1407, made me laugh.
https://katysexposure.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=15010
wearyant
July 8, 2015
“Surrender your freedom, avoid daylight, live to work, and you too could join a toxic, paranoid elite.” —The Guardian
Gee, who possibly comes to mind upon hearing that? LOL! Enjoy all your goodies, ya worthless ethically challenged bureaucrats! I love ya from afar, far beneath you within the horde of the great unwashed, roiling masses who struggle daily to pay for your excesses. [smooches]
Wendy Darling
July 8, 2015
Not “ethically challenged” , Ethically bankrupt.
455 Golden Gate Avenue left ethically challenged in the rear-view mirror a long, long, long time ago.
Still serving themselves to the detriment of all Californians.
Long live the ACJ.
wearyant
July 8, 2015
http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/07/08/whistle-blower-factors-overhauled-in-9th-circ.htm
Maybe … just maybe, someday, the whistleblowers will prevail.
Long live Wendy D
unionman575
July 9, 2015
All ye serfs you may listen only…
http://www.courts.ca.gov/epmeetings.htm
Executive and Planning Committee
July 15, 2015 Meeting
12:10 to 1:10 p.m.
Public Call-In Number: 877-820-7831;
passcode 846-8947 (listen only)
😉
unionman575
July 9, 2015
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/7/all-the-due-process-money-can-buy.html
All the due process money can buy…
Wendy Darling
July 9, 2015
“All the due process money can buy” – the REAL motto of 455 Golden Gate Avenue.
Long live the ACJ.
Santa, Tooth Fairies Unicorns and California Court Justice
July 9, 2015
tick…. tock….. http://patch.com/california/beverlyhills/california-court-corruption-epidemic-linked-supreme-court-chief-justice
Wendy Darling
July 9, 2015
The case-fixing activities in the OC Superior Court were reported to branch administration at 455 Golden Gate Avenue well over 2 years ago. The only result was to punish/get rid of those who reported the illegal conduct. And protect the guilty, of course.
The California Judicial Branch: where you go if you want to be punished for telling the truth.
Not that anyone is actually going to do anything about any of that.
Long live the ACJ.
Santa, Tooth Fairies Unicorns and California Court Justice
July 11, 2015
Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman. Is this the beginning of more Sunshine ? https://vimeo.com/131256565
http://www.fulldisclosure.net/2015/06/corrupted-justice-the-movie/
Santa, Tooth Fairies Unicorns and California Court Justice
July 11, 2015
oops..forgot.. . “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.” – Louis Brandeis
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis
Santa, Tooth Fairies Unicorns and California Court Justice
July 11, 2015
Activist judges in the U.S. Courts are expanding their roles by taking over state and local functions, operating state prisons, school boards and mental institutions. He noted the Courts are not suited or qualified for this activity and it causes confusion as to who is responsible for those functions. ”http://www.fulldisclosure.net/2005/05/u-s-justice-corrupted-by-ideology-422/