San Francisco Superior Court

San Francisco's civil courthouse at 400 McAllister St.

Filing a lawsuit in San Francisco could become nearly impossible.

Severe cuts to the city's Superior Court, to be formally announced Monday, will result in the closure of 25 of San Francisco's 63 courtrooms, almost all in the civil division, according to court spokeswoman Ann Donlan. Two hundred employees will be let go.

"It will take a year and a half to get a divorce in San Francisco and to get a child custody order. If you file suit, we won't do anything with your case for five years," Donlan said. Paying a traffic ticket could mean waiting in line for five hours.

"We're basically talking about the suspension of most civil actions in court," she said. While the criminal court in the Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant St. will remain open, most courtooms at a second courthouse at 400 McAllister St. in Civic Center will be closed.

Donlan said the cuts are the result of a state budget that eliminated $350 million from courts throughout California, leaving the San Francisco Superior Court with a $13.75 million deficit.

"This is the worst crisis in legal services that I can think of in my professional career in more than 20 years," said Bill Hebert, a San Francisco lawyer who is president of the State Bar of California.

"People won't be able to get their disputes resolved. People injured in accidents won't be able to get their medical bills paid for, and if people can't get their medical bills paid, they'll be on the street. It has a terrible ripple effect particularly for people who are on the edge in this economy," Hebert said.

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for the state finance department, said the cuts are primarily the result of Republican lawmakers' refusal to approve tax extensions sought by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Brown had initially proposed a $200 million cut to the courts, but was forced to up that by $150 million when a bipartisan deal couldn't be reached.

"It became clear that wasn’t going to happen, and to get to a balanced and on-time budget, additional cuts have to go on the table," Palmer said. 

"There are real-world consequences" of not adopting additional taxes, Palmer said, "and this is a clear-cut example of that."

Raquel Silva, deputy director of the Municipal Executives’ Association, a labor union that represents administrators at San Francisco Superior Court, said she was "anxiously watching" to see if the Judicial Council of California, which manages the state court system, would be able to repurpose some money currently allocated to capital improvements to help keep the courts open.

But Judicial Council spokesman Philip Carrizosa said there's little money in that fund now, because the state legislature "raided" $310 million from the courts' capital improvements fund to balance the state budget. 

Hebert, of the State Bar, said lawyers would be willing to pay more in filing fees to help offset the cuts. "We will support anything and any way that the court will be able to support additional revenues to keep its doors open. Even though that's an increased burden for individual litigants, it's better for the system overall," he said.

Carrizosa said there have been discussions about raising filing fees, but no specific proposals.

Correction: An earlier version of this story erronesously reported that San Francisco's Civic Center Courthouse would be closed. It will not be closed, but many courtrooms in that courthouse will be shuttered.