Opinion - Whatcom View

POSTED: Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

County must fund justice for all in upcoming budget

Banks stop loaning money to people and businesses in Whatcom County, because they can't get court hearings to enforce loans when borrowers default. A spouse cleans out family bank accounts, leaving the other spouse with three small children, no money and no way to get help from the court, which has a months-long waiting list for emergency hearings. Two neighbors can't resolve a property line dispute because there's no room for the case on the court's docket. Employees whose employer refuses to pay their earned wages can't get a trial to prove the pay that's due to them.

They may sound extreme, but these are examples of how further cuts to the county courts budgets will affect the people of Whatcom County.

Many people think of criminal trials when they think of our courts. But most of the courts' caseload is civil cases - the wide variety of disputes that don't involve crimes. The welfare of children; commercial disputes; real estate matters; wills and probate cases; family law and divorce cases; employment related disputes; insurance claims; injury claims; land use matters -these are the day to day work of the county courts.

These kinds of cases - the ones that affect all of us, directly or indirectly - have already been compromised by several years of cuts to the courts' operating budgets. Now, we are at the crisis point. The courts have reduced their staffs, and the services they offer to the people of Whatcom County have declined as a result. Even the most basic court services - several of them required under state or federal law - have been compromised, putting the county at serious risk of legal liability.

The budget proposed for 2010 would compound the problem by cutting even deeper into the courts' basic functions. Approximately $350,000 in cuts to the Superior Court and District Court budgets could take effect in early 2010. The immediate results:

- Courts would no longer hear petitions for protective orders in domestic violence situations;

- Hearings would be cancelled - not simply postponed - if a judge is sick, on vacation or otherwise unavailable, because there will be no money to pay a substitute judge. The courtroom would simply sit empty for the day, or the week;

- Night court - an innovation popular among people who work during the day - would be ended;

- Availability of court staff and commissioners to handle emergencies would be cut back or eliminated.

The solution is not expensive, in relative terms: the funds necessary to bring court services back to the minimally adequate level are less than one-fifth of one percent of the full county budget. But these funds are critical.

The courts affect all of us, even those who've never set foot in a courtroom. People are entitled to hearings to appeal adverse actions of state and local government; the potential for a hearing makes government accountable. That incentive changes if a court hearing is unavailable. Businesses people make and rely on agreements because they are enforceable in court. That will change if courts lose the commissioners and staff needed to handle the court's civil caseload. Divorcing people don't steal family assets, or children, from each other because they know that a judge will mete out justice to a spouse who acted badly. Respect for the rule of law drops considerably if there is no way to enforce the law.

Our federal and state constitutions established three equal branches of government - the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The judicial branch - the courts - depends on the other two branches for funding at a responsible level. In hard times, our elected representatives must make hard decisions about spending scarce dollars. Court operations are part of the core government services that are so essential that they have priority over all others: they are critical to daily life. Without a functional court system, a society begins to crumble.

Adequate funding for our courts is not a liberal or conservative, democratic or republican issue. Our legal system is a fundamental, critical part of our democracy, our constitution and our society. The issue here is nothing less than reasonable access to justice for all of us.

The County Council will meet at 7:00 Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the Whatcom County Courthouse, 311 Grand Ave., to consider the 2010 budget. Your support for access to justice through adequate court funding can make a real difference. Please contact County Council members or the county executive, or express your support at the Nov. 10 meeting.

Katti Esp is president of the Whatcom County Bar Association President and chair of the Whatcom County Bar Association Court Fiscal Emergency Task Force.