After massive court funding cuts in California, civil cases get little attention and working people who seek to have their day in court too often lose a day’s work in the process, then still have to return to court on another day.

California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye told a Sacramento Bee columnist about these impacts of severe court funding cuts. And that’s not all — sometimes Justice Cantil-Sakauye herself has run into time-consuming obstacles because of personnel reductions:

“Sometimes I’ll call a courthouse myself and get stuck with voicemail and by the time I get to my option, I’m told the court is closed. And I’m chief.”

In the column, Marcos Breton wrote about the dignity with which he said the state’s top judge is carrying out her work in the face of the huge shortfalls. California has seen four years of court funding cuts totaling $653 million, and more bad news was expected today.

Elsewhere, the crisis from state court funding cuts was a topic of these news media accounts: In Georgia, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol Huntstein warned that judges and attorneys must inform the public about the threats to judicial independence from continued cutbacks, according to a Savannah Morning News article. In Alabama, Mobile County Circuit Judge wrote a Press-Register commentary entitled, “Constitution mandates sufficient court funds.”

Tags: Alabama, California, Georgia