Utah Supreme Court Chief Justice Christine Durham told lawmakers Monday a proposed budget cut would force her to furlough all court employees for five workweeks -- a move that could mean closing the courts one day a week.
And that's just for the current fiscal year.
If legislators press ahead with a 15 percent cut for 2010, Durham said, 283 court employees would be laid off and some courthouses would be permanently closed.
"Let me be clear: This is not the way we as a state want to run our courts; this is not what Utah's citizens are entitled to," Durham told a joint session on Capitol Hill, devoting her entire annual State of the Judiciary address to budget woes.
State courts have been asked to weather a 7½ percent, or $8 million, budget cut before the end of June. The only way to accomplish the reduction, Durham said, would be to furlough "every one of our thousand employees for 26 days before June 30th."
"This will mean that our employees will experience a 20 percent reduction in pay in every paycheck, and it also means the courts will not be adequately staffed to perform our work," Durham said.
The furloughs would begin in mid-February. One option to accomplish them would be to close the courts one day each week to allow for "more adequate" staffing on other days, Durham said.
Durham asked for help from lawmakers to find a way for the courts to avoid closing and to perform their duties. She urged them to support a proposal to raise filing fees for civil lawsuits, which could prevent drastic job cuts and even reduce the length of the proposed furlough if implemented by April 1. For example, the fee for filing a civil lawsuit valued at more than $10,000 would be increased from $155 to $300.
Durham also asked lawmakers to support pending federal legislation that would allow the state to intercept the federal tax refunds of people who owe the state money.
Meanwhile, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has proposed dipping into the state's $414 million Rainy Day Fund to ease proposed cuts.
Durham noted the workload of the courts is directly tied to the performance of the economy, and that they have experienced "a completely unprecedented" increase in court filings during the first half of this fiscal year.
"Civil case filings statewide were up 22 percent, the first time in the history of the Utah courts that we have ever seen anything in double-digit increases," Durham said.
She said the courts have already eliminated in-house court reporters. Through a combination of a hiring freeze and 12 staff cuts in the Administrative Office of the Courts, the courts will already see a reduction of 60 employees by the end of June.
"These are very hard times, and we are ready to do our part," Durham told lawmakers. But she added that the magnitude of the proposed budget cuts "will cause our capacity to perform our core governmental function to grind to a halt."
She said lawyers and members of the public are already complaining about delays in processing cases, and further cuts would have "profound human and economic costs."
She asked lawmakers to imagine a 15-year-old being recruited by a gang who is caught shoplifting. "In the months it will take to get that child and his family into court, he may well become a full-fledged gang member with serious criminal acts under his belt," Durham said.
On the business front, she said delays in getting judgments entered and money transferred from debtors to creditors could have a "domino effect."
"A small business that cannot get money or assets owed to it is at risk of defaulting on its obligations to suppliers and employees," Durham said. "Then the suppliers and employees are unable to meet their obligations, and so on up the money trail to banks and investors, who in turn become unable to invest or loan money."
Michael Day, a veteran commercial litigator with the law firm Durham Jones and Pinegar in St. George, said it already takes six to eight months to get a civil case docketed for trial, even after all the preliminary pleadings and motions have been handled.
He said a four-day workweek, or drastic staff cuts, would have "a significant impact" on the ability to get before a judge.
"Access to the courts is such a fundamental function of government," Day said. "It's troubling to think that's a place you would make significant budget cuts.
"There's just nowhere else to turn for the services the courts provide."
