Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

The attorney you retain may have tricks up his or her sleeve.

You have been misinformed. Some cases take a long time to get to trial because the lawyers need to do a lot of work and/or to accommodate the schedules of the parties and the lawyers, but not because of the court's caseload. The court will hold status conferences and other hearings along the way, so it will be aware of the allegations long before the case gets to trial.

You are assuming that the courts are being clogged with "false accusations and frivolous lawsuits". However, I think you would find that the parties that have filed the lawsuits do not believe them to be frivolous. I am fairly certain that some people might consider your case to be frivolous regardless of the circumstances.

Also keep in mind that California has a larger population than any other state in the country with more than 35 million people. The opportunity for disputes to arise are magnified due simply to the large number of people.

The situation in the courts is both better and worse than it used to be. It used to take FIVE (5) years to get to trial from the date the lawsuit was filed. However, the state legislature pushed that down with certain requirements back in the 1990s.

The way it is worse, however, is that there are simply many more people in the state now and many more lawsuits than there used to be. Public resources are stretched thin. With the Republicans in the legislature unwilling to raise taxes to provide for public services the likelihood is that the time it takes to get to trial is not going to get reduced any time in the near future.

You have options. You can go the private route if the other side is also willing to go the private judge route and have the matter resolved through arbitration. However, depending on the type of case, the number of witnesses, complexity of case, length of hearing an arbitration might be much, much more expensive as the arbitrator's fee is likely to be anywhere between $200 and $1,000 per hour.

Alternatively, depending on the circumstances of your case there might be ways to expedite your case.

Every county I practice in is pretty good about getting cases tried in a year or less, unless the parties and attorneys themselves ask for more time, or outside proceedings such as one of the parties filing for bankruptcy delay things. As far as clogged courts, if and when courts are in fact clogged, it is invariably due to criminal matters, which take priority over all civil cases. To answer your specific question, however, yes there are ways to expedite trials for certain reasons, such as ongoing irrevocable harm that cannot be prevented with restraining orders until trial, elderly plaintiffs, major issues affecting the public (such as gay marriage), etc. If there are legitimate grounds for pushing a particular case forward early, any good litigator will be able to do it. If it's just that you think your case is more important than anyone else's, however, they think the same about theirs, and the courts would REALLY grind to a halt if they had to sort that out, so it's first come first served.

Mr. Donner also makes a very good point that mediation and arbitration are becoming more and more popular for many reasons, not the least of which is how much more quickly you can get a result. If you are interested in that option, my office provides those services at pretty reasonable rates that are split between the parties. My closest hearing facilities to you are in Sacramento, but I am sure we could find accomodations closer if you and the other party(ies) preferred.

In addition to what the other attorneys have posted, which I agree with, there are other remedies available pending trial, rather than just sitting around and waiting for trial. They include motion practice, including summary judgment proceedings, prejudgment attachments if necessary and proper, injunctive relief, and discovery.