San Mateo County Superior court reducing services after state budget cuts

San Mateo County Superior Court will reduce several services due to state budget cuts, the court announced Monday.

Most of the cuts will impact civil, probate or family law cases, the court said. In child custody cases, for example, the time between meeting with a counselor and the first hearing with a judge will increase from 8-10 weeks to as much as four months.

Court officials said that parties can expect some of their civil or family law judgements to be delayed for up to six months. However, most criminal proceedings appear to be unaffected by the changes.

The reductions come as Gov. Gavin Newsom tries to close an almost $45 billion budget shortfall statewide. The state budget, passed in June, cuts $97 million from the state's trial courts to address this shortfall. San Mateo County Superior Court said that it is responsible for approximately $1.45 million of those cuts.

"[These cuts] will have real impacts on operations, services, and access for everyone seeking to resolve disputes or assert their legal rights in our courts," California Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero said.

The funding cuts come as the San Mateo County court expects to see its costs increase. The court said it expects cost-of-living increases to balloon its workers compensation costs from less than $460,000 to more than $570,000. Additionally, the court projects its forensic mental health evaluation costs to rise by nearly 45 percent, from $335,900 to $482,746.

To implement its share of the cuts, the court will look to reduce its workforce, implementing a hiring freeze except for "essential court positions," it said Monday.

The court will implement cuts to public service phone lines for its Civil, Probate, Family Law and Records Management divisions, limiting hours to 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. The court also said that it will reduce the number of in-person appointments for those divisions, noting that it will also have "limited ability" to address drop-in assistance going forward. It will also now take five to seven days to process civil, family law and probate cases instead of one to two days, the court said.