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The cost of judgments and settlements against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department totaled more than $60 million in fiscal year 2019-20, nearly three times the litigation costs incurred by any other county department, according to a report received by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The total countywide cost of litigation, including attorney’s fees and expenses, was $151.9 million, up slightly from the prior year based on higher total legal fees.<\/p>\n
None of the three most expensive LASD judgments — which made up 90% of the total $15.4 million paid out under court orders — were related to excessive force incidents. However, $1 million was distributed as the final payment in a case involving a 2010 warrantless entry in which deputies shot a resident and his pregnant wife in Lancaster.<\/p>\n
County lawyers spent $72.2 million last year to settle claims and suits out of court against all departments, an increase of 20% over the prior year.\u00a0The biggest payouts included $12.5 million to settle an auto liability suit involving a deputy who ran a red light and killed two children in 2017 and $7.1 million paid in a class-action employment discrimination suit against the Department of Children and Family Services. Another $4.4 million — of a total $7 million settlement — was paid to the family of Donta Taylor, who was fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies in 2016.<\/p>\n
Two deputies who filed a claim against the county alleging that they were selectively prosecuted — and who were acquitted — of filing false police reports were paid $2.25 million to settle their suit.<\/p>\n
As legal actions often take years to settle and payments are frequently spread over multiple years, the annual litigation cost is not particularly helpful as a point-in-time assessment of the county’s overall liability or the effect of particular policy reforms. A separate risk management report, also received and filed by the board on Tuesday, provides additional detail on exposure to liability and workers’ compensation claims.<\/p>\n
However, one telling statistic is that new lawsuits were up 11% in 2019-20 and have been on the rise every year since 2015-16. And the LASD was sued more often than any other department during 2019-20, with a total of 194 suits in process. By comparison, the Department of Public Works was served with 60 new suits, DHS with 40 and DCFS with 35.<\/p>\n
The top three case types were dangerous condition, auto liability and law enforcement claims.\u00a0The county’s success rate at trial fell below a four-year average of 49% to 38%, though the county won 12 of its 13 appeals last year.<\/p>\n
Another bright spot is that the county was able to recover $62.3 million by settling a claim against Southern California Edison related to the 2018 Woolsey Fire, based on the utility’s acknowledgment that its equipment was likely associated with ignition of the blaze.<\/p>\n
Contract cities also picked up a portion of the county’s total litigation cost.<\/p>\n
The board offered no comment on the report at its Tuesday meeting, voting simply to receive and file it.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The cost of judgments and settlements against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department totaled more than $60 million in fiscal year 2019-20, nearly three times the litigation costs incurred by any other county department, according to a report received by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. The total countywide cost of litigation, including attorney’s fees and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":97692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[719,1499,1496],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}