Turlock court reopens to provide better customer service

For more than six years, the Stanislaus Superior Court building on Starr Avenue remained dormant, a casualty of state budget cuts.

The building’s doors will reopen to the public Jan. 4, providing a courtroom and a clerk’s office for all small claims and unlawful detainer cases in Stanislaus County. These cases will move out of the civil court building in downtown Modesto and relocate to the Turlock courthouse.

“It’s all moving over here,” said court supervisor Melissa Kole, who will be leading the Turlock staff and preparing for the building’s reopening. “It’s pretty much ready.”

Before the court’s doors were shuttered on Oct. 1, 2009, the building provided a legal venue for traffic and child support cases. Those cases will not be returning to Turlock. “We just don’t have the capability to do that,” Kole said.

The clerk’s office in Turlock will house files only dealing with small claims and unlawful detainer cases. Kole has a group of staffers working diligently to scan court documents, turning them into digital case files as Stanislaus Superior Court continues to transition to a paperless records system.

About 20 people will be working at the Turlock courthouse, including newly sworn Court Commissioner Jared Beeson, who will preside over cases three days a week in the courtroom. Stanislaus County sheriff’s officials will provide security, and a metal detector is already up and running in the courthouse lobby.

The court handles an average of about 260 small claims hearings and 68 unlawful detainer hearings each month. “It’ll be busy,” Kole said about the Turlock courthouse.

She said the Turlock court reopening likely will not affect the amount of cases at the main courthouse on 11th Street in downtown Modesto, where the court’s criminal cases are processed. Only the civil court in the Merrill Lynch building on Tenth Street will see fewer people coming in.

DRASTIC BUDGET CUTS

In summer 2009, the state was doling out some drastic budget cuts, especially to the courts. Statewide, the court system planned to close a $361 million budget deficit.

Stanislaus Superior Court at the time closed its facilities one day a month to help make up for the budget shortfall. The court also eventually closed the Turlock court and another in Ceres. While the Ceres courthouse isn’t reopening, the Turlock court reboot provides some indication that the 2009 budget woes have lessened.

“I think it is a sign that things are doing better,” said Stephanie Kennedy, the court’s chief of operations.

She said the court received a state budget increase last year, which funds the $224,000 salary and benefits for the court commissioner in Turlock. The staff members that will work in Turlock are being transferred from other court divisions. The Turlock building remained a property of the court, even during the several years it remained empty, so there was no need to buy or lease a new building.

Repurposed workstations, cubicles, courtroom seating and other equipment from the Los Angeles and Yolo superior courts were installed in the Turlock court building for its reopening.

Service could improve for those seeking to settle housing disputes in court. Kennedy said the court commissioner wants to see an expansion of a mediator program that helps litigants settle their cases.

The Turlock courthouse will house mediators from Project Sentinel, a nonprofit organization that helps people with housing problems such as discrimination, mortgage foreclosure and delinquency, rental issues, privacy, dispute resolution, homebuyer education and reverse mortgages.

Small claims cases are on the rise, Kennedy said, with more people wanting to settle their legal disputes fairly quickly without hiring an attorney. She said most small claims cases are settled after two court appearances. There are even some small businesses who take the small claims route.

With an increase in the number of these cases, the court wanted to provide a separate courthouse. Kennedy said the reopening will help court staffers provide better customer service, not only in Turlock but also at the civil court in downtown Modesto.

“I think things will go a little faster in the lines (at the clerk’s offices),” she said.

This story was originally published December 27, 2015 at 6:53 PM with the headline "Turlock court reopens to provide better customer service."