By Amaris Elliott-Engel
Of the Legal Staff
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille, the liaison justice to the First Judicial District who is in charge of appointing administrative judges of the court's divisions, said in an interview Thursday that the FJD may have to sue to secure a necessary level of funding in the next fiscal year.
The Philadelphia court system is to be funded at $99 million, down from $114.5 million, in the budget that has passed the first hurdles in City Council this week. Additional funding may be available for the court from federal grants.
The courts may have to shut down one day a week in order to cut costs at that level of funding, Castille said.
Cases that are now scheduled for the days the courts close will be bumped until the next available court date after all of the other scheduled cases, dates that will be three months out, Castille said. And there will be delays in all of the courts' divisions, Castille said.
An inadequate level of funding for the courts that sabotages the courts' ability to function could necessitate a lawsuit, Castille said.
"We don't want a constitutional confrontation but that will most likely end up before the Supreme Court," Castille said. "And we'd have to do what's right by the Constitution. And the counties and the state are required to adequately fund the respective judicial systems."
The Legal reported in today's edition that Castille said in the same interview that a lawsuit might be necessary regarding the state level of funding for the state court system.
If the shortfall between the court's budget request and the proposal from Gov. Edward G. Rendell is not closed, Castille said he might have to tell judges -- who will be elected to new judgeships created, but not funded, by the General Assembly -- that the court system can't pay them and they'll have to sue the executive and legislative branches in order to get paid.
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