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LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County paid out $91.5 million to satisfy judgments and settle lawsuits in fiscal year 2018-19, nearly one-quarter more than it spent the previous year, according to an analysis made available Tuesday.<\/p>\nLOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County paid out $91.5 million to satisfy judgments and settle lawsuits in fiscal year 2018-19, nearly one-quarter more than it spent the previous year, according to an analysis made available Tuesday.<\/p>\n
That total doesn’t include another $57 million in legal fees and expenses related to those lawsuits.<\/p>\n
The Litigation Cost Report was included on the Board of Supervisors agenda, but county lawyers asked to postpone discussion for two weeks.<\/p>\n
Though the payments covered 256 lawsuits, just 14 of those cases made up nearly two-thirds of the total spent.<\/p>\n
The biggest judgment — $7 million — stemmed from a 2008 melee at the Men’s Central Jail in which inmates lit fires, flooded toilets and shattered sinks in what plaintiffs characterized as a protest against excessive force.<\/p>\n
Custody deputies severely injured five inmates when forcibly pulling them out of high-security units during the turmoil, according to the report. Plaintiffs testified that deputies used concussion grenades and stun guns, and punched and kicked inmates even when they were not resisting.<\/p>\n
The bulk of that judgment was paid out to the plaintiffs’ attorneys for their fees and costs.<\/p>\n
The Sheriff’s Department had the highest level of litigation expenses – – $81 million including legal fees and costs — of all county departments. The total dwarfed that incurred by the Department of Children and Family Services, second on the list with $17 million in expenses.<\/p>\n
Some of the most expensive settlements were paid to the families of individuals fatally shot by deputies — cases which accounted for 31% of all settlements in 2018-19.<\/p>\n
However, the lawsuit generating the highest settlement payout — $15 million over two years — stemmed from the wrongful conviction of Frank O’Connell for the 1984 murder of maintenance man Jay French. O’Connell spent 27 years in prison on the say-so of one eyewitness.<\/p>\n
In one of the two most costly judgments against DCFS, social workers removed a 15-month-old boy from his mother’s custody for neglect without a warrant or what the court ultimately could identify as exigent circumstances. The mother was awarded $6 million. In the other, a suit was filed against the county on behalf of a child for failing to detect and prevent her mother’s abuse. She was awarded $10.5 million, to be paid over multiple years.<\/p>\n
Even as the county was paying out more to plaintiffs, it dropped its year-over-year spending on attorneys’ fees and costs. However, the trend of litigation does not seem to be working in the county’s favor. The 762 new lawsuits filed in 2018-19 was up 7% from the prior year.<\/p>\n
At trial, the county prevailed more often than not and the Sheriff’s Department, for example, won five of the eight cases that went to trial in 2018-19. On appeal, the county did even better, winning 31 of 35 appeals.<\/p>\n
The county also collected some money through legal challenges, including $51.7 million paid by Southern California Gas Co. in connection with the Aliso Canyon natural gas leak.<\/p>\n
The board is expected to review the report on Feb. 18.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County paid out $91.5 million to satisfy judgments and settle lawsuits in fiscal year 2018-19, nearly one-quarter more than it spent the previous year, according to an analysis made available Tuesday. That total doesn’t include another $57 million in legal fees and expenses related to those lawsuits. The Litigation Cost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":85937,"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":[1499,1496,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91406"}],"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=91406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}