Two Trial Courts in California are closing their courtrooms and furlough staff once a month in an effort to save some money in the states financial crisis. Closing these courts on the third Wednesday of every month for the next fiscal year is supposed to save the state over $18 million dollars.

Local leaders were waiting for the state to coordinate a statewide closure plan to emerge from all of the budget negotiations, but they couldn’t wait any longer.

Los Angeles County Superior Court officials expected to have just 43 of 600 courtrooms open countywide to process restraining orders, in-custody arraignments, juvenile dependency cases and other time-sensitive matters. Ninety-three percent of the court’s 5,000 employees will be furloughed, spokeswoman Mary Hearn said.

The closures have left attorneys like those at the Children’s Law Center scrambling. Wednesday is typically the busiest day of the week for the agency that represents more than 20,000 Los Angeles County children in dependency court. Cases brought into the foster care system on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday must be filed in court by the following Wednesday to meet a three-day statutory deadline.

Just two of 20 dependency courts are expected to be operating in Los Angeles on Wednesday. On top of that, the Children’s Law Center, faced with its own $1.2 million budget cut, will have only a skeleton crew of 20 attorneys working, said Executive Director Leslie Starr Heimov. Other attorneys and staff will be taking a furlough day, she said.

Even though many courtrooms will be closed, LA courthouse doors will remain open so attorneys can file papers. The closure is not considered a holiday and paperwork dropped off by 4:30 will receive filing stamps.

Check out the original article: Los Angeles to Close 557 Courtrooms

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A careful analysis of your discovery needs and available discovery tools can protect your client against undue expense. First decide what you hope to achieve through discovery: Do you want to push the case to trial, or are you simply trying to force a settlement? How you answer that question will determine the scope and thrust of your discovery. Also carefully analyze your information requirements. What type of information do you need from the other side? Are there sources of that information other than your opposition? How much will it cost to get the information?

The most obvious way to minimize the cost of collecting information is to draw upon sources that offer no resistance, such as your client, readily accessible files of government agencies, or publications from business groups and trade associations. When these sources of information have been exhausted, you can still protect your client against excessive costs by selecting your discovery tools carefully.

When properly used, carefully honed interrogatories can be a relatively inexpensive method of significantly advancing your information development. For instance, interrogatories are usually the ideal discovery tool in cases involving accounting data, complicated damages, technical information, or statistical data. By contrast, many hours can be wasted in a deposition attempting to obtain such material. As well, interrogatories are important for discovering the identity of experts the other party intends to call at trial, the subject of the expert’s testimony, and the substance of the facts and opinions to which the expert will testify.

Effective interrogatories must be carefully drafted. You can achieve clarity and precision by preceding the interrogatories with a carefully drafted set of definitions and instructions. You may also wish to issue several sets of interrogatories, with each set limited to specified areas of inquiry. Be careful though, because interrogatories can be counterproductive and sometimes even harmful to your position. For example, if you have substantial knowledge of the facts of the case, you must consider whether interrogatories that go to the merits might be of more benefit to your opponent than to you.

The request for production of documents is a second low-cost discovery tool that can yield high dividends. In complex cases, requests for document production are often the starting point for discovery. These requests can be used in conjunction with interrogatories to obtain all the important documents for your case.

Finally, requests for admissions can be used to obtain valuable information from the other side. This discovery tool allows an attorney to garner admissions of fact and identity from the opposing party without having to take depositions or draft long interrogatories. Again, carefully draft Requests for Admission to achieve the quick result you are looking for.

In sum, it is best to obtain legal documents through informal exchange between lawyers. This, in the long run, will save your clients the most time and money. When it is not possible to obtain documents through informal exchange, carefully drafted interrogatories, requests for production of documents, and requests for admissions are useful tools to obtain necessary information in a relatively cost effective way.

Click on one of these links to check out sample legal documents drafted by Amlaw 200 Law Firms for Fortune 500 Companies.

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You may not realize it at the time, but your business credit is just as important to the overall health of your business as your personal credit is to your private life. Many creative people will rush headlong into starting their own business without any inkling on how to create a healthy business credit profile. Let’s take a look at a few basic steps you need to take to give your new business the healthy start it needs to get off the ground.

Separation is key

There is a reason why so many companies out there are listed as corporations. When a company becomes a corporation, it essentially becomes its own person with its own credit profile and history. Even if your own personal credit is sterling, you want to create a LLC or limited liability company so that in case your business fails, your own personal credit will remain untouched. You should never, ever run a business based on your own personal credit profile. The failure rate, even for well run businesses, is simply too high and the cost is far too great.

Stick to the plan

Next, you need a first class business plan. If you aren’t familiar with business plans, they are like an outline for your business. Before you can lay a single brick or write your first line of code for your business website, you need to have a viable, successful business on paper. You will need to outline every expense, from overhead to employee salaries to incidentals. You will need to go into detail about the product or service you will be providing and how you plan on making a profit. A viable business plan is absolutely essential to getting the loans, and the credit, you need to start your business.

Cross your T’s and dot your I’s

Going hand in hand with your business plan is making sure that you have all of the necessary permits and legal permissions you need to start your business. If you are planning an online business, make sure that you are allowed to run it out of your home. You could have the best written business plan in the world but if you can’t get your business licensed, it is a non starter and no bank will even consider extending you the credit you need.

Time to get assessing

Before you head off to your lender of choice, you will need to perform a credit assessment. A credit assessment is an evaluation that you can perform that will give you an idea of the standards you need to meet to get the necessary financing. These assessments don’t take very long and they can give you a goal to shoot for so you don’t waste time talking to a lender who is simply going to turn you down.

Once you’ve gotten an initial investment from a lender, it is up to you to maintain a good credit score. Vendors will be much more willing to do business with you if you have a small debt load, and it will be easier to convince other investors to come on board if you are paying your bills on time. Getting and maintaining a good business credit score is all about preparation and execution of your business plan.

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