Sacramento Bee – On the eve of an expected Thursday decision on whether courts across the state will remain closed to the public one day each month, hundreds of court employees represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Locals 521 and 721 gathered outside of court houses in Los Angeles, Bakersfield and Redwood City to protest court closures that harm California’s children and families.  

“Unless the Judicial Council takes action, more courthouses will close and justice will be delayed for thousands of people. Even the one-day-per month court closure is creating havoc in the whole court system,” said Carolyn Dasher, a Los Angeles County court reporter.

Since September 2009, California courts have been closed to the public one day each month, an action which has affected everyone from abused and neglected children to victims of domestic violence to small business owners.  California’s Judicial Council is expected to decide tomorrow whether to extend the harmful closures through June.   

Leading California judges and law enforcement officials have decried the closures because they prevent abused and neglected children and victims of domestic violence from timely access to the justice system, exacerbate the already severe overcrowding of California’s jails, and compromise the legal system we all count on.  
“Cases are backed up,” said Rachelle Hill, a court worker from Bakersfield. “Every member of the public who should be served in a timely way ends up standing in the growing lines. Judges and attorneys should know better than anyone that justice delayed is justice denied. It is time to stop delaying justice.”

The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), the state agency that controls county court budgets, operates without oversight from the public or the legislature – unlike any other public agency.  While the AOC has ordered county courts to close their doors to the public one day a month, the agency’s administrators have plowed forward with massive spending projects which raise serious questions about the AOC’s priorities.  Among the questionable expenditures is a $2 billion computer system which has yet to be completed and double digit raises for top AOC staff.  

SEIU members have worked closely with judges, law enforcement officers, and community leaders to push for the AOC to be accountable to the public, to open its books, its records, its budgets, and its decision-making to the public.


SEIU California is a coalition of over 700,000 janitors, social workers, security officers, home care workers, school and university employees, healthcare workers, and city, county and state employees represented by SEIU local unions throughout California. We come together to build a better California by fighting to pass policies and elect candidates that benefit working families and advance the issues we care about: affordable healthcare, good wages, retirement security for all, a healthy environment, good schools and universities, and stronger communities. We believe that by working together we can build a California where working families can thrive again.