Beverly Hills Courthouse Closure Decried By Business; It's A Westside Legal Hub

By Dennis Romero Thu., Jan. 31 2013 at 8:03 AM

Categories: Law

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The famous Beverly Hills courthouse, home to many an appearance by Lindsay Lohan and other celebrities, is slated to close alongside 9 other regional courthouses as a result of budget cuts.

The powers that be in the gilded city aren't too happy about that.

The Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce this week asked the county to reconsider:

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A letter from the chamber to local state Sen. Ted Lieu, Assemblyman Richard Bloom and L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky notes that the 90210 is a statewide hub of legal activity:

Letter from the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce regarding the local court closure by

Beverly Hills is home to a large number of law firms and has the fifth largest Bar Association in the state with 5,600 members. This Courthouse is centrally located within the Westside of Los Angeles and the estimated 18,000-20,000 legal professionals who practicing law here. We fear that the shuttering of all the courtrooms will have a negative impact upon a legal community that has been a traditional cornerstone of the City's economy.

The court closures, which could save the county $80 million in much-needed cash, were expected to take place by summer.

The chamber says forcing Westside cases to be heard downtown is bad for business and legal efficiency. The Beverly Hills facility is home to "250,000 visitors and 70,000 filings annually," according to the organization.

Closing the courthouse will do more harm than good, it argues.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

Tags:

Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County, Superior Court

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aaronscc

Thank left-leaning legislators for destroying the prosperity of California. When Silicon Valley and Hollywood "go Galt", the people should rise up and go after the legislators of the last 30 years, their families, their property, and those who paid for access.

In order to be a legislator, there should be two prerequisites to appear on a ballot: a videotaped recording proving mathematical literacy and a videotaped Q&A with economists on how private sector jobs are created and which companies are the candidates' role models for how to create prosperity within a community.

abramsrl

There are rules establishing where attorneys must file their cases -- "near your office" is not one of them. My office is an easy walk from the Beverly Hills Courthouse, but I seldom have a case there. Of course, I would prefer to file all my cases in Beverly Hills, which is a very nice place to live and/or work.

None of the courthouses should be closed, but it is a type of skewed karma which has boomeranged on the courts. For decades, the judges have bent over backwards to favor the business community and screw regular people. In December 2005, the West District (Santa Monica) learned about Countrywide's massive mortgage fraud and rather than doing what was legal and allow the case to proceed, the judges in West District turned upon the plaintiff and treated him like dirt. With the help of these Westside judges, Countrywide continued in its corruption until it and Wall Street crashed the world economy in 2008. The Crash of 2008 was a major factor in the State's lack of the funds which lead to the closing of many courthouses.

Now the courts have been caught in the economic disaster which they helped create, but everyone else suffers. Well, not everyone suffers. Once again, businesses like insurance company come out on top. A case which would take 18 mos to 2 years to bring to trial will now take about 5 years. That means if you are injured and have to sue the other party for causing your injuries, it will be at least 5 years after the injury for you to get a trial date. If you are injured today, January 31, 2013, count on trial in 2018 -- meanwhile the business that cheated you or the insurance company for the driver who injured you are keeping all the money which they should pay to compensate you. Closing courthouses does harm the average guy while helping big businesses.