Brenda Miles v. David Wesley

Two recessions and a decade of budget cuts have dramatically transformed the Los Angeles County Superior Court (“LASC”), the largest trial court in the country. From 2008 to 2012, LASC lost $110 million in state funding. In response, LASC closed courtrooms, furloughed employees, increased filing fees, and curtailed services to. the public. In 2013, the California legislature again significantly cut funding to the judicial branch, and LASC was required to absorb another $56 million in permanent reduction to its annual operating budget. Faced with a fiscal crisis, and already overburdened from years of shrinking budgets, LASC decided to fundamentally restructure its operations through a “consolidation plan.” The plan called for wide-ranging changes, including employee layoffs, more courtroom closures, and the consolidation of proceedings in certain types of cases heard in local courthouses throughout the county into “hub” courts — specialized courts that hear only one type of case.

After LASC announced the consolidation plan (and prior to its implementation), Plaintiffs Brenda Miles, Dane Sullivan, and numerous non-profit organizations filed this class-action challenge to…