Los Angeles County, Los Angeles Superior Court Long-Range Planning Study

Los Angeles County, Los Angeles Superior Court Long-Range Planning Study

The long-range planning study for the Superior Court of Los Angeles County analyzed and developed the improvement and modernization of trial court facilities within Los Angeles County. The study has three distinct areas of focus in the development of 17 courthouse capital projects: the Stanley Mosk Courthouse, Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, and facilities throughout the county affected by 15 other capital projects. Both Mosk and Foltz were studied in detail to explore the feasibility of addressing their specific needs and requirements for cost, program capacity, scheduling, and potential site parameters.

Criteria Architect: AECOM
Fund: General Fund
Completion Date: April 24, 2024
Funding Year: FY 2021–22

Los Angeles Superior Court Long-Range Planning Study

The Superior Court of Los Angeles Superior County is the largest unified superior court in the United States. It is composed of over 580 judicial officers and 5,000 employees and adjudicates 1.2 million filed cases annually in its 36 courthouses spread across the county’s 4,752 square miles. Millions of court users enter courthouse doors (physically or through technology) annually to access the justice system and seek resolution of the legal issues they are experiencing. However, the facilities of the Los Angeles Superior Court (LASC), within which those disputes are heard and decided, are aging, seismically compromised, lacking in appropriate levels of security, and inefficient for modern court operations to serve the need of the court’s users. The solution to the LASC’s facilities issues is complex and requires significant effort by the superior court, the Judicial Council of California, and the state. It is for this purpose that the Judicial Council produced the Los Angeles Superior Court Long-Range Planning Study

The Judicial Council inherited most of the LASC’s facilities due to the consolidation of the California trial courts at the turn of the millennium. Two of these facilities—the Stanley Mosk Courthouse (Mosk) and the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center (Foltz)—are the largest single civil/family/probate and criminal courthouses, respectively, in the nation. Only four of the LASC’s courthouse facilities are less than 30 years old, and 19 of the LASC courthouse facilities are older than 50 years, which is well beyond the useful life of a courthouse. Both flagship courthouses—Mosk and Foltz—are older than 50 years. The LASC facilities represent four of the five most seismically unstable courthouses in the state and 22 of the 55 most seismically unstable courthouses in the state. Not only does the age of the facilities impact the seismic stability, public safety, security deficiencies, and inefficiencies in the operation, but the age of the buildings also imposes great cost to the court and the state as a result of the failing pipes and HVAC systems, broken and non-functioning elevators/escalators, and other building repairs. Water intrusions are seemingly never-ending, resulting in significant cost to be borne by the Judicial Council and the court for repair and remediation of furnishings and court files often impacted by asbestos, among other issues.

The planning study focuses on 17 capital projects, including affected court facilities, identified in the 2019 Prioritization for Trial Court Capital-Outlay Projects and presents its findings and recommendations on the future improvements and modernization of the LASC’s facilities. The study undertook a comprehensive evaluation of the immediate and critical needs along with the long-term goals identified by the court. Furthermore, it uses seismic renovation project feasibility report findings for both Mosk and Foltz as a basis for evaluating seismic risk. The study focuses primarily on Mosk and Foltz because they represent 35 percent of the courtrooms in Los Angeles County, and they are integrally tied to the well-established judicial and government ecosystem of downtown Los Angeles (DTLA).

The planning study has three distinct areas of focus:

• Stanley Mosk Courthouse;
• Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center; and
• The long-range plan for these two main court facilities as well as the facilities affected by 15 other capital projects, including the quantity, timing, and estimated cost to support the overall improvement of the LASC.

Both Mosk and Foltz were studied in detail to explore the feasibility of addressing their specific needs and requirements for cost, program capacity, scheduling, and potential site parameters.

The planning study recommends the following:

• To maintain a centralized DTLA presence with a new 100-courtroom DTLA civil courthouse and new 60-courtroom DTLA criminal courthouse as the nucleus of the LASC system:
  • For the New DTLA Civil Courthouse, acquire a new site that maintains functional efficiency of the current justice ecosystem that exists in DTLA.
  • For the New DTLA Criminal Courthouse, acquire a new site or utilize the vacated Mosk footprint to maintain proximity to justice partners and minimize operational disruption.
• To also implement the 15 other courthouse projects throughout Los Angeles County in alignment with the LASC’s current centralized operational model.