California Courts Face Financial Starvation

The judiciary is California's third branch of government, but the courts now get just one percent of the total state budget. During the past five years, the courts claimed they've lost 65 percent of their funding. This week, Chief Justice Tani Cantil Sakauye delivered her address on the state of the judiciary. "To have your day in court, you need a courtroom and I will say that what we once counted on…is no longer true in California." Starting next Monday, anybody headed to small claims court may have a lot longer trip to make, and that's just one of the changes. Traffic tickets, domestic abuse cases — even adoptions -- could be affected. Are Angelenos ready for the new, smaller court system? Who will be hit hardest?