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Civil Litigation,
Administrative/Regulatory

Sep. 21, 2022

Created during a crisis – the closing of the PI Hub will allow for a return of local jurisprudence

Lawyers may be concerned about the impact this change will have on already heavily congested judicial calendars. The court, however, remains committed to monitoring these changes and to make adjustments as needed.

Marta Alcumbrac

Partner , Robie & Matthai, APC

Marta is also President of the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel

The Association of Southern California Defense Counsel (ASCDC) proudly supports the Los Angeles County Superior Court's (LASC) decision to gradually close the Personal Injury (PI) Hub courtrooms.

The PI Hub was created over nine years ago as a direct response to a state-wide fiscal crisis which, in turn, caused crippling budget cuts to California's judicial system. For LASC, the budget cuts resulted in the loss of hundreds of courtroom and other administrative staff positions, and the closing of at least 56 courtrooms. In evaluating how to best manage these losses within the largest unified trial court in the country, LASC's court leadership made tough decisions in order to efficiently balance the increased caseloads from the closed courtrooms. After determining that personal injury cases often required less judicial management than other types of civil cases, court leadership decided that PI cases pending in Independent Calendar (IC) courtrooms would be transferred to the newly created PI Hub courts to allow the IC courts to focus on non-PI civil matters and their instantly expanded caseloads.

Although created from necessity, the PI Hub is not without its drawbacks. For example, the sheer volume of cases within the PI Hub resulted in less judicial involvement and oversight. Currently, there are six PI Hub courtrooms managing 40,000 cases, with each judge handling roughly 7,000 PI cases. Given this unwieldy volume, it is difficult for the bench officers to efficiently manage their calendars and the cases. While these bench officers work tirelessly, efficient judicial management has become beyond burdensome. Likewise, attorneys with cases in PI Hub courtrooms are frustrated by a lack of available hearing dates, which translates to an increase in ex parte applications, and the inability to timely resolve discovery disputes. Another drawback is that cases are often not served on the defendants until just before the Final Status Conference, which is the only mandated conference before a PI Hub judge after the suit is filed. Then, when defense counsel is retained, they need time to gather the facts, evaluate liability, and possibly prepare a dispositive motion. This all too frequent scenario leads to a request for a trial date continuance. Further still, PI trials often do not take place in the local jurisdiction in which the matter arose; rather, when cases are ready for trial, they are sent to any available trial court within Los Angeles County. Recognizing these difficulties, LASC leadership has taken decisive steps, over the years, to improve judicial efficiencies. However, with COVID, the PI Hub caseloads continued to grow.

With increased funding to the courts this year, a decision was made to gradually close the PI Hub courts and return PI cases to the local district courts where the incident occurred. LASC leadership has done a great deal of work to establish a comprehensive plan to implement this change; they have painstakingly evaluated how to best orchestrate this shift in judicial case management. They have examined - by zip code - which judicial districts most of the PI cases originate from and will be opening six additional IC courtrooms within those districts. Additional staff will be hired to assist the judicial officers in these newly created IC courtrooms. By October 10, 2022, all newly filed PI cases - except those that originate in the Central District - will be filed and heard in the district where the incident occurred. However, cases that are currently in the PI Hub, if they are not complicated, or in IC courts because they have been determined to be complicated, will continue to be managed as they are now. The court will be issuing an Eighth Amended Standing Order on October 10, 2022, which will set forth these changes in detail.

There are countless advantages to this bold move to gradually close the PI Hub. The cases will now be handled from beginning to end by a single bench officer, in contrast to the current PI Hub system which necessarily involves at least two judges. Counsel will now be able to work with and get to know the single assigned judge. In addition, the PI cases will have Case Management Conferences, as opposed to currently being exempt from the Trial Court Delay Reduction Act, which will give the court the ability to have more hands-on management of PI cases, and work with the parties and counsel to understand the issues at stake. Given the current caseloads in the PI Hub, this type of judicial case management is not feasible. Further, cases will be tried before jurors from the local community in which the incident occurred, and having the matter tried locally will mean increased convenience to the litigants and witnesses. These individuals will no longer have to travel throughout the county to testify at an available trial court assigned to hear the matter. If an incident occurs in Torrance, for example, it will be filed in Torrance, and tried in Torrance before a Torrance jury. Also, this change will give counsel the opportunity to give their clients a clearer understanding of expectations and realistic outcomes based upon learned experiences from the local jurisdictions and interactions with the trial judge, which is currently not possible given the configuration of the PI Hub. Further still, as the caseloads gradually decrease within the PI Hub, judges within the Hub will be able to more efficiently manage their dockets. Eventually, as the majority of new PI cases are no longer filed in the Central District, LASC will be able to gradually reduce the number of PI Hub courts, reclassifying them as IC courts, until all the PI Hub courtrooms are effectively closed.

No doubt, implementing this plan may result in anxiety and culture shock for the litigants and their counsel, and perhaps for some bench officers that have yet to manage a PI caseload. Practically speaking, uncertainty involved in change often creates unease. Lawyers may be concerned about the impact this change will have on already heavily congested judicial calendars. The court, however, remains committed to monitoring these changes and to make adjustments as needed. In fact, court leadership is already providing additional training to its judges so they can effectively address certain and somewhat unique matters that are routinely heard in PI cases, like motions to compel medical and mental examinations, good faith settlement motions, minor's compromise hearings, and motions involving surveillance evidence. Lawyers that have not litigated a PI case outside of the PI Hub will have to become familiar with the Case Management Rules of Court, Rules 3.720-3.735, and the trial court's procedures for ex parte applications. For our part, ASCDC intends to continue to work cooperatively with the court, counsel and other bar organizations to ensure a smooth transition.

ASCDC applauds the hard work by LASC's court leadership in making these important changes and looks forward to working with the court to assist in any way possible.

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