This past Saturday, The New York Times published an article highlighting the negative repercussions of extensive budget cuts within the state and local justice systems since the 2008 financial crisis.
David Boies, a co-chairman of a commission formed by the American Bar Association to study court budget issues, told The Times that the budget issues facing courts today are not only causing inconvenience, but also “resulting in the failure to deliver basic justice.”
The issue seems to be that slashed funding has caused the courts to become both considerably less efficient and less accessible. The Morrow County Municipal Court in Mount Gilead, Ohio, experienced this in 2009 when they refused new case filings for three months unless litigants brought their own paper, because the court’s paper budget had run out.
On the one hand, the justice system should not be the branch of government taking all of the budget cuts. Oftentimes, the legislature seems to imply that the courts are a lesser subsidiary of the other branches of government, and as such do not deserve as much funding or resources. Of course, the justice system is one of the last places we should be slashing funds in half, but in this economy, all departments and branches of government have had to make sacrifices.
Government is famously inefficient, and that inefficiency does not equate to a violation of constitutional rights like these critics proclaim. Perhaps instead of chalking problems up to lack of funding, courts should consider restructuring and tweaking their infrastructure to accommodate cases in an efficient manner. Additionally, budget cuts do not directly reduce accessibility. It is the courts’ responsibility to handle cases and remain an open and effective service to the public.
According to The Times, in the last three years, 34 states have laid off court employees and 23 have reduced court operating hours. Some courts are operating only four days a week simply due to lack of manpower. As dismal as these numbers are, they are also reflective of a national trend infecting the job market everywhere, not just the courts. The judicial system needs to reevaluate its infrastructure and adjust for new circumstances instead of wallowing in its financial woes without a concrete direction.
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