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Courts may be drained
Nearly half of Kern’s judges able to retire in next few years
| Saturday, Oct 6 2007 9:27 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, Oct 6 2007 9:27 PM
Kern County’s court system, long proud of its speed and efficiency, could be in for a slowdown with almost half its judges eligible to retire — and some taking long vacations beforehand.
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Some justices have accrued months of time off after delaying vacations to ensure a smoothly run court system.
And smoothly run it’s been. Kern completes civil cases faster than any other California county despite increasing number of cases per judge.
With fewer and less-experienced judges on the bench, everything from divorces to civil trials could take longer to resolve.
There are different takes on what’s to come.
Presiding Judge Jerold Turner said backfilling for retirements and vacations will be one of his greatest challenges. But he, like a lot of judges and local attorneys, aren’t fretting too much.
Temporary judges will fill the gaps, Turner said.
“Yes, we are probably a little skinny, but we are not in a position of crisis or anything approaching a crisis,” he said.
But Judge John L. Fielder said he cannot retire because a deluge of retirements could hurt local courts, especially family courts.
“I keep telling the attorneys to get ready,” Fielder said. “They don’t believe me.”
How we got here
Kern County has 35 judge positions. By the end of 2010, 16 judges will either retire or be eligible to retire.
Judges who’ve racked up a lot of vacation time must use it or lose it. They can’t cash it out.
And the state can’t replace a judge until he or she officially retires.
Kern County Superior Court Judge Richard Oberholzer, a notorious workhorse, has banked a half year of vacation. He started a lengthy leave in June that he expects will extend to 2008. Oberholzer has said he doesn’t know if he will retire after that.
Judge Arthur Wallace said several judges started racking up huge amounts of vacation in the mid-1980s when several judges died.
“Everyone hitched up their trousers and took on a little more work,” he said.
To keep from overburdening the court system now, Judge James Stuart is taking off a week every month before he retires in January.
Judge Romero Moench said he did not use the last of his vacation before retiring in June.
“The courts are burdened enough,” Moench said.
But Judge H. A. “Skip” Staley said it’s better for judges to take long vacations at once because the presiding judge can ask for long-term replacements. It’s more difficult to cover for several short vacations by redirecting cases to existing judges, he said.
But replacement judges are costly. They earn 92 percent of what a normal judge makes plus their retirement salary.
Judges are paid $171,648 a year. Normally a judge earns 75 percent of his pay when he retires after 20 years.
Others have thought mondo vacation accruals are a bad idea.
In 2001, the state limited them to 30 days from previous years and 30 days from the current year — for a total of 60. Judges were allowed to keep time accrued before 2001.
The impact
Many local attorneys acknowledge judge vacancies could cause a slowdown, but most think they will be temporary and manageable.
Even though criminal trials take priority over civil ones in theory, several civil attorneys believe their future looks pretty good while those on the criminal side are a little more nervous.
“I think in civil we are in pretty good shape,” said Timothy Lemucchi, who works on both civil and criminal cases. “The criminal situation over there in misdemeanors is just a zoo.”
Lemucchi and civil attorney William Kuhs say civil cases will be insulated because many are negotiated outside court.
Kuhs said these problems will eventually be resolved once new judges are appointed. One judge was appointed recently, leaving one position open.
“It’s not going to hurt in the long run,” Kuhs said.
Most of the judges have retired — or are on vacation — from criminal courts.
Public Defender Mark Arnold said criminal cases may work more slowly for a while but no one can predict the future.
“We’re in the business of solving problems,” Arnold said. “There will always be some problem to fix.”
While Turner is confident he will be able to fill the local bench, a question remains: How will new judges stack up to experienced ones?
Fielder said there soon will be few people in family court with much experience. It’s one of the main reasons he believes he needs to stay on the bench despite losing $500,000 in penalties that accrue when judges continue serving after they’re eligible to retire.
“The bar is going to be decimated,” Fielder said.
But Wallace said that the enthusiasm of new judges will make up for their lack of experience.
Civil cases
Despite increasing case loads, Kern County finishes civil cases fastest in the state.
In the last year, 98 percent of Kern County’s civil cases were resolved before two years.
Wallace attributes that to a fast-track program he helped institute in the 1980s.
The program lets judges schedule cases rather than attorneys and they set time limits — a year for simple cases, two years for complex ones. One judge handles a case from filing to resolution.
Many consider civil cases to be a measure of a court’s health because criminal cases take priority over all other types of litigation.
The civil judges were able to make this happen as judges encouraged more criminal cases to settle starting in 1988.
Other high-growth counties such as Riverside have not managed as well. A team of judges was recently dispatched to Riverside to reduce the backlog of criminal cases. In recent years, Riverside County had to halt all civil cases to ease the criminal backlog.
The number of cases filed in Kern County shot up 24 percent from about 177,000 in the fiscal year ending in 1999 to 220,000 in the fiscal year ending in 2006.
“We have one of the most efficient court systems in the state,” Turner said. “It doesn’t mean things can’t be better, they can be.”
Retired/plan to retire
Charles P. McNutt
Age: 60
Appointed or elected: 1981
Retired: Sept. 9, 2007
Remaining vacation: Took six weeks of vacation beforehand.
Frank A. Hoover
Age: 59
Appointed or elected: 1982
Plans to retire: December 2007
Work status: Only works when needed because of postpolio syndrome.
Remaining vacation: Will start vacation Oct. 17.
Sharon Mettler
Age: 59
Appointed or elected: 1986
Plans to retire: July 14, 2008
Remaining vacation: Will use all vacation prior to retirement. Clarence Westra Jr.
Age: 62
Appointed or elected: 1983
Plans to retire: late 2008
Remaining vacation: Will take 50 days of vacation before then.
H.A. “Skip” Staley
Age: 58
Appointed or elected: 1982
Tentative plans to retire: 2009
Remaining vacation: He will not have a backlog of vacation before he retires.
Charles B. Pfister
Age: 57
Appointed or elected: 1982
Plans to retire: The next two to four years
Remaining vacation: He said he is not certain how much vacation he has.
Romero J. Moench
Age: 68
Appointed or elected: 1988
Retired: June 2007
Remaining vacation: Did not take vacation he accrued before retiring.
James M. Stuart
Age: 65
Appointed/elected: 1985
Plans to retire: January 2008
Remaining vacation: Is taking one week off a month during the entire year of 2007.
On the fence
Richard J. Oberholzer
Age: unknown
Appointed or elected: 1987
Considering retiring: 2008
Vacation: Started a 6-month-long vacation in June. Gary A. Ingle
Age: 59
Appointed or elected: 1981
Eligible to retire: Jan 1, 2010, and he has not decided if he will retire that year.
Vacation: He has no backlog of vacation.
No plans
John L. Fielder
Age: 59
Appointed or elected: 1981
Eligible to retire: May 2008
Vacation accrued: Has about 50 days of vacation accrued.
Arthur E. Wallace
Age: 68
Appointed or elected: 1986
Eligible to retire: 2006
Vacation accrued: Has six months of vacation accrued and will take it before he retires.
Gary T. Friedman
Age: 64
Appointed or elected: 1983
Vacation: No backlog of vacation
John I. Kelly
Age: 75
Appointed or elected: 1988
Eligible to retire: January 2008
No responses
Robert J. Anspach
Age: 70
Appointed or elected: 1988,
L. Bryce Chase
Age: 63
Appointed or elected: 1981