LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Los Angeles County's court system will get $9.2 million toward providing additional judicial and staff resources to address delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in criminal cases, the court's presiding judge announced today.
The funding will allow for additional temporary judicial officers, along with their own additional staff and security resources, according to the court.
``Our plan is to have these additional bench officers assist current judicial officers as we strategically and methodically address pandemic-related criminal case delays in each judicial district,'' the county's Presiding Judge, Eric Taylor, said in a statement.
Taylor called the funding ``critical'' and said the court system is ``committed to working with our justice partners to continue to find creative and strategic solutions such as this to assist our judicial officers address case backlogs and delays caused by the ongoing pandemic.''
Los Angeles County was among eight trial court systems in the state that were awarded money during the first of two funding phases planned for California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye's ``early disposition program'' under an allocation plan approved by the Judicial Council of California.