LA County spent $190 million and the City of LA spent $136.9 million in two fiscal years

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) today released a report finding eight of California’s largest cities and nine of its largest counties spent $504.1 million to deal with lawsuits over two fiscal years.

CALA looked at monies spent on verdicts, settlements and outside counsel in fiscal years 2007 and 2008 for the counties of: Alameda, Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and Santa Clara and the cities of: Anaheim, Bakersfield, Fresno, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, and San Jose.

“California has 58 counties and 480 cities, so this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Tom Scott, CALA Executive Director. “With devastating budget cuts hitting cities and counties up and down the state, there are countless other ways this money could have been spent.”

Los Angeles County spent $190 million in verdicts, settlements and outside counsel in fiscal years 2007 and 2008 and the City of Los Angeles spent $136.9 during this time. Not only are these costs outrageous in their own right, the money spent by the city in just one year could have paid the starting base salaries for 1,271 police officers.

“It’s amazing that while endless programs are being cut and jobs are being lost, the city and county of Los Angeles are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on lawsuits,” said Maryann Marino, CALA Southern California Regional Director. “If that isn’t a poor use for our tax dollars, then I don’t know what is.”

The information compiled in the report came from public information requests of the localities. CALA released a similar report two years ago finding that three cities and four counties spent more than $276 million in litigation costs for fiscal years 2005 and 2006.

“Citizens of California deserve to know where their tax dollars are going. Budget shortfalls don’t just affect those who might lose their jobs or services they rely on, the effects ripple to the entire community and beyond,” Scott said. “That’s why CALA is calling for greater disclosure, more public oversight and adoption of aggressive risk management procedures to protect our local government coffers from the greedy hands of plaintiffs’ attorneys.”

The report can be found in its entirety here.

California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) is a nonpartisan, grass-roots organization dedicated to educating the public about the negative effects of lawsuit abuse and challenging those who abuse our legal system for personal gain.