In Norwalk, They Get Their Day out of Court
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It was a return to more primitive days of California justice in Norwalk as judges and clerks forsook their courtrooms to tend to judicial business outdoors in the shade after Thursday’s earthquake.
Uncertain of how badly the seven-story Superior Court building was damaged in the quake, administrators closed the courthouse to the public for all of Thursday and part of Friday morning. Rather than send everyone home, they simply picked up their furniture and case files and moved to the parking lot and courthouse steps.
Judges signed orders, clerks rescheduled cases, and in a couple of instances, court was called to order under a tree. After a brief hearing, Family Law Commissioner Anita Rae Shapiro finalized a divorce.
“We had nothing else to do,” explained Shapiro’s clerk, Mike Johnson. “So we thought, ‘Why not? We have the judge and the staff.’ ”
“Some of these people want to continue like this. They think it’s nice out there,” said Warren D. Allen, supervising judge of the Southeast Superior Court district.
But county engineers pronounced the courthouse safe and justice returned indoors.
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