Court Case File Missing Documents

[lettegrl]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? VA

 

[garrula lingua]

Were the documents file-stamped by the court clerk?
Were they entered into evidence during a hearing ?

Sometimes, courts lose files. I believe it's rarer now that all docs are scanned & on computer ... if you have file-stamped Motions/Affidavits which are not in the court file, you can speak to the supervisor in the court clerk area.
Show him/her the docs you have and whatever proof which supports the fact that they were, at one time, in the file.
Possibly checking scanned docs will locate the missing hard copies. Maybe someone reviewed the file & removed docs ... Talk to the supervisor.

 

[CourtClerk]

now that all docs are scanned & on computer ...

LMAOOOO..... when was the last time you were in LA County? You've been gone a while, my friend.

 

[lettegrl]

File was literally 1 inch think of papers sent to courthouse. These letters were not entered during hearing, just mailed to court. (would they have stamped them?) I just happened to see them when I went to review file, maybe two years ago. Attorney said file was small with just summons and orders. I plan to go check and see what may have happened though I dont know how they could lose had to be at least 50 pages from file.....

 

[garrula lingua]

CC, it's a sad day when the 'rural' Gulf Coast of Texas can do better than L.A. county I guess I should stop yelling Auntie Em, Auntie Em, and clicking my heels.

Criminal and civil cases are online in most Tx counties, with hearings and filed documents listed; all docs are scanned upon filing.
Efiling is prevalent & strongly pushed by the courts; service by fax is the norm among attorneys.

... When I worked in San Bernardino County, missing files were commonplace. We all just kept file-stamped copies of everything, and the clerks would rebuild the file with the docs the attorneys had ...

CC, is it true that Clark said L.A. Court was laying off 1,800 workers ???

 

[garrula lingua]

File was literally 1 inch think of papers sent to courthouse. These letters were not entered during hearing, just mailed to court. (would they have stamped them?) I just happened to see them when I went to review file, maybe two years ago. Attorney said file was small with just summons and orders. I plan to go check and see what may have happened though I dont know how they could lose had to be at least 50 pages from file.....

Lett, the court doesn't have to (really shouldn't) keep any letters/papers mailed to the Judge. They should have been returned to the sender.

Only those Pleadings which are properly filed, with service to the other parties, should be filed. The clerks may have 'lodged' some paperwork in the file which never should have been there. Maybe it was correct to dispose of them.
See if CC answers; she'd be the expert here.

 

[CourtClerk]

CC, is it true that Clark said L.A. Court was laying off 1,800 workers ???

Clarke not only said it, but he's making it gospel in this order:

379 people April 1
500 in September
1000 more next year....

it's about to be a mad house at LASC. PM me an email address, I have something to show you.

 

[CourtClerk]

CC, it's a sad day when the 'rural' Gulf Coast of Texas can do better than L.A. county I guess I should stop yelling Auntie Em, Auntie Em, and clicking my heels.

Criminal and civil cases are online in most Tx counties, with hearings and filed documents listed; all docs are scanned upon filing.
Efiling is prevalent & strongly pushed by the courts; service by fax is the norm among attorneys.

... When I worked in San Bernardino County, missing files were commonplace. We all just kept file-stamped copies of everything, and the clerks would rebuild the file with the docs the attorneys had ...

CC, is it true that Clark said L.A. Court was laying off 1,800 workers ???

Well, you know you can access SOME types of cases online. Civil cases are online, probate cases have begun to be scanned and are available for online access. Paternity case are and will always be confidential. There are no plans that I know of to scan those docs (but they should be). Divorce cases can be accessed online, but yeah, we're still using paper. Missing loose docs is nothing more than normal. This is why conformed copies are an absolute. More often than not, we'll deem as an original than go hunt for a missing piece of paper.

I'm wondering what the missing papers are in this case. If they are exparte communication, then no, they shouldn't have made it into the case file. If they were exhibits, perhaps they were returned or destroyed per their civil code or the local rules.

 

[garrula lingua]

Clarke not only said it, but he's making it gospel in this order:

379 people April 1
500 in September
1000 more next year....

it's about to be a mad house at LASC.

****e!!!! That's insane !!

 

[CourtClerk]

****e!!!! That's insane !!

That's saying it gently. Oh, and they are shutting down the traffic phone center and help desk effective Tuesday. Gotta love it, don'tcha? There are a lot of people that are going to be hurt by this budget crisis. People will not have access to the courts the way they have now, employees are going to be overworked and tired - thus, you'll see a whole lot more workers comp cases, not to mention those that will be unemployed and without benefits. Furloughs will continue for 2 more years, but still at one day a month.

 

[garrula lingua]

Holy crappola!
Employees were overworked and tired long before this mess; how the hell can the L.A. courts work with less people, less court time, less help for pro pers ??

Even if employees started retiring and many unfilled jobs were deleted with attrition, the work still has to be done ...
How can this possibly work ????
You're right - the pro pers will get cut off.
The Powers That Be must have some kind of contingency plan - less hearings, more decisions on the pleadings, more briefing .... something different planned for the courts to be able to survive. I bet the Judges have some plans to reduce their calendars.

Here, attorneys are yelling that their incomes have been greatly reduced - the common theory is that people 'stay married/keep their legal problems',
when they're in a scary economy. The court dockets seem to remain the same, though (and very few are pro per).

Cripes, Arnold - start legalizing and taxing some drugs, or drilling, or put up tent cities like Arpaio.
If we can't increase the income, then we better decrease the expense.

 

[CourtClerk]

Holy crappola!
Employees were overworked and tired long before this mess; how the hell can the L.A. courts work with less people, less court time, less help for pro pers ??

Even if employees started retiring and many unfilled jobs were deleted with attrition, the work still has to be done ...
How can this possibly work ????
You're right - the pro pers will get cut off.
The Powers That Be must have some kind of contingency plan - less hearings, more decisions on the pleadings, more briefing .... something different planned for the courts to be able to survive. I bet the Judges have some plans to reduce their calendars.

Here, attorneys are yelling that their incomes have been greatly reduced - the common theory is that people 'stay married/keep their legal problems',
when they're in a scary economy. The court dockets seem to remain the same, though (and very few are pro per).

Cripes, Arnold - start legalizing and taxing some drugs, or drilling, or put up tent cities like Arpaio.
If we can't increase the income, then we better decrease the expense.

If there is a contingency plan, they aren't saying. Clarke has all but admitted that the courts are going to go to hell in a handbasket. I didn't mention the talk of courthouse closures did I? That's right, they are going to close courtrooms, and in some cases, courthouses all together. They have no plans to reduce calendars that they are speaking of. Simply put, they've said it's just going to flat out take much longer to push a case through.

There are all kinds of talks. Attrition didn't work like they thought it would. In fact, it didn't work at all. Furloughs didn't save the money they thought it would. LA and some other counties would like to use the "building fund" to pay salaries, by and large other counties don't - so they won't.

The general consensus amongst my coworkers is that they aren't going to work any harder and they certainly aren't going to stress themselves out dealing with this mess. People are going to have to wait, figure it out and deal with it, the same as we will have to. There are talks of cascading, which will save some money (how much? no one knows), but our days of staying in our courtrooms to catch up or stay caught up are over. Part of the hope is that once this whole thing starts crashing down, the state will see how bad this gets and throw more money at the courts. If it works come July, great. If it doesn't.... don't come back to practice in LA County.

 

[garrula lingua]

...How dismall.
They can't allow the criminal cases to back up - not unless they get defendants waiving time. Which means family and probate courts will probably get hit hardest. Traffic will also be hit hard.
The average Joe and Jane will take the brunt of the cuts. The civil trial attorneys will probably command more attention, and criminal has to take precedence.
LAPD is also laying off a large number of cops & support staff ...

Well, maybe the economy will pick up before they have to cut most of the positions. It seems every two years these agencies & the Board of Supervisors announced lay-offs & it never really happened.
Hopefully, it won't happen.
...Why didn't they increase the filing fees ? Start looking at the indigency filings & see that many of those people are working & earning $$$ ?
Start checking on how much defendants earned before appointing a PD, instead of simply taking the def's word ? Start going after welfare/medicare/medicaid fraud & demand restitution ???
The State wastes so much money.
There are some solutions; they just need braver people in charge.
Take care. I'm off my soapbox.

 

[my life is mine]

Depends on county in VA, whether you can see cases online. I know in my county and the surrounding 4 counties, you will be unable to see JDR cases online. "Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court
Access to the case management system for the juvenile and domestic relations district courts is not available online."

 

[AGirlAndHerCrow]

Read OP post history...then you'll get the full picture...