In The News . . . . CALA Releases Latest Study On California Local Government Legal Costs And Votings Right Act Cases Are Beginning To Proliferate

 

Local Government Legal Spending For 2007 and 2008 Fiscal Years.

     As reported by Teri Sforza in the November 13, 2009 edition of The Orange County Register, California’s Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) has released its study of local government spending on litigation for the fiscal years 2007 and 2008. The study tallied money spent on verdicts, settlements, and outside counsel is fiscal years 2007 and 2008, although it does not cover all of California’s 58 counties or 480 cities.

     For the areas surveyed, $504.1 million was spent in total for the 2007 and 2008 fiscal years. Here is how County spending broke down: (1) Los Angeles — $ 190 million; (2) San Francisco — $37.7 million; (3) Sacramento — $22.3 million; (4) Orange -$14.2 million; (5) Alameda — $12.2 million; (6) Santa Clara — $8.3 million; (7) San Diego — $3.9 million; (8) Fresno — $2.7 million; and (9) Kern — $2.4 million. With respect to Orange County cities, Anaheim spent $4.4 million for fiscal years 2007 and 2008.

2002 Votings Rights Act.

     Michael R. Blood, in his recent November 15, 2009 article “Jackpot: Lawyers earn fees from law they wrote”, has an interesting discussion about California’s Votings Right Act, which has a one-way fee-shifting provision which works only in favor of prevailing plaintiffs.

     Seattle law professor Joaquin Avila, with advice from California attorney Robert Rubin, helped draft the Votings Right Act, which empowers state courts to create smaller election districts favoring minority candidates for “at large” elections. Messrs. Avila and Rubin, or lawyers working with them, have collected or billed local governments about $4.3 million in three cases that have settled (including a $1.2 million fee request under consideration in an action brought against the Madera Unified School District). A couple of more cases are still pending, and the article seems to hint that more lawsuits likely will proliferate under this statute.

This Ballot Box is Closed.  Library of Congress.

Above:  No vote. D.C. ballot boxes draped in black. Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 1938. Election day was just another day for voteless District of Columbia. To impress upon Washingtonians what they are missing, ballot boxes draped in black were places on the busiest corners of downtown. Members of the District League of Women’s Voters attended the boxes but instead of receiving votes they handed out information on what it means to the citizens of Washington not to be able to vote. Left to right we see–Mrs.. Karl Bradford, Mrs. R. Shull, and Mrs. Henry Chalmers, 11/8/38

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