Budget cuts may affect rights

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The leader of Connecticut's Supreme Court said Friday she fears the Judicial Branch won't be able to meet its constitutional obligations to the public due to more than $76 million in cuts over two years mandated by the legislature to help balance the state budget.

The planned cuts released by the Judicial Branch on Friday include laying off about 450 employees, eliminating another 150 full-time jobs now vacant and closing four courthouses, one juvenile detention center, three juvenile probation offices and six law libraries. The cuts represent nearly 7.5 percent of the branch's total budget of roughly $1 billion for the fiscal year that began July 1 and next year.

Chief Justice Chase T. Rogers said Connecticut's courts are required under the state constitution to administer justice without delay. She said she worries the cuts will reduce people's access to justice, and she expects the reductions to cause delays in civil, family, housing and small claims cases. Priority will be placed on criminal cases, she said.

"The end result is that our ability to administer justice as required by the constitution may very well be compromised," Rogers said in a statement.

Court officials are planning to close Enfield Superior Court, Danbury Juvenile Court, Torrington Juvenile Court, Rockville Juvenile Court and the New Haven Juvenile Detention Center. Business handled by the closing courthouses will be transferred to other courthouses, while detainees and workers at the New Haven Juvenile Detention Center will be transferred to similar facilities in Hartford and Bridgeport.

Employees that would be laid off include 119 temporary court clerks, 53 temporary court recording monitors, 48 adult probation officers, 48 temporary paralegals and 33 judicial marshal trainees.

Chief Court Administrator Barbara Quinn says people will have to travel farther to court and probation offices, self-represented litigants will lose access to law libraries and people facing home foreclosure will wait longer to get into the state's foreclosure mediation program.

In response to Rogers' comments, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's senior adviser, Roy Occhiogrosso, said "people are entirely capable of stepping up to the plate" when asked to do more with less.

"Government continues to operate," Occhiogrosso said. "Connecticut will get through this difficult phase."

The court system cuts are part of state officials' efforts to balance Connecticut's two-year, $40 billion budget after unionized workers rejected a labor savings deal that would have saved $1.6 billion.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.