Community Group La Defensa Is Relaunching Court Watching In LA

Court watching is coming back to Los Angeles after a hiatus.

Court watchers are just what they sound like. They're volunteers who watch what happens during bail hearings and take notes, look for anything that might not be right and report it to people who can do something about it. They also raise awareness about racial disparities and other injustices in courtrooms that might otherwise go unnoticed.

There are well established court watching programs in places like New York, Chicago, Washington D.C. and Prince George’s County, Maryland. Now, local legal aid group La Defensa is relaunching a program here in L.A. County, and they're looking for volunteers.

About L.A.'s program

LAist recently spoke with Gabriela Vazquez, La Defensa's deputy director, about the program. Her organization defines itself as a "broad anti-racist, feminist, and anti-capitalist movement led by the people most impacted by criminalization, economic injustice, and other forms of state control in L.A. County."

The revamped program started up last week and will have its first volunteer orientation this month. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Nick Roman, who hosts All Things Considered on LAist 89.3 conducted the interview.

You had a court watcher program, it went away. Now it's coming back. Why did it stop and how will it work now?

Gabriela Vazquez: So originally this program was led by the National Lawyers Guild here in Los Angeles. It was their L.A. chapter who was running it. And ultimately they reached out to us at the beginning of this year in January to let us know that they were hoping to pass the program along to another organization that could give it a little bit more time and attention.

And so we at La Defensa were very happy about this opportunity for us to be able to adopt a program that really does need to continue and grow, if anything, here in Los Angeles, because we have a very large judicial system here in L.A. County. And so we wanted to make sure to give it a home.

Bail hearings are step one in the criminal justice system. Are you going to focus on bail hearings?

GV: Yes, we're going to sit in courtrooms where there are bail hearings, arraignments, plea trials, just really any type of happening in a criminal court.

How many volunteers have you signed up so far and is there anything you've noticed about those volunteers?

GV: We have about 25 folks registered to court watch. Our first day will be July 31 in downtown Los Angeles at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Court.

And what we have noticed about them is that a lot of them are law students who are now done with their finals. They have their summer and I think they're looking for something to do where they can still be inside of the courtrooms and also start observing what judges are doing.

I was wondering if maybe you would attract people who had been through the legal system before.

GV: Yes. And so another thing that I wanted to name for you all is that La Defensa also started the ratemyjudge.la website a couple of years ago. It's like Yelp, but for judges. And so with that program, we've actually seen a lot of folks who were formerly incarcerated or whose loved ones are currently incarcerated, who volunteer with us and also leave reviews and encourage their family members and loved ones to also create profiles and leave reviews.

And so we've reached out to these same folks to volunteer with us and to continue to grow the program. So I know right now we're a small but mighty group, and I can only imagine how much we're gonna grow as folks start to learn about the program's revival.

Tell me what the court watchers are going to do.

GV: So court watchers are going to use case sheets that we've updated, just to be able to sit within the courtrooms and observe. They will use these case sheets to be able to identify whether or not judges are following certain court proceedings, and to perhaps identify any judicial biases or misconduct that might be occurring within these courtrooms.

So the court watchers take notes and then what happens to the notes?

GV: So we are actually launching a brand new website for Court Watch LA and folks will actually be able to create their own unique profiles. With those profiles, they'll be able to create a story of who and which courtrooms they are interacting with. The data that we are collecting, we want to make sure that it's publicly accessible so we will be able to use this data to create fuller profiles of judges here in Los Angeles County. So after we collect a sizable amount, we will be able to then share that out right back to the community.

How to participate

If you're interested in becoming a court watcher you can start by filling out this form on the Court Watch LA website:

• Volunteer sign up

Upcoming trainings

• July 11, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. (virtual)
• July 27, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. (in-person)
• Aug. 15, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. (virtual)
• Aug. 29, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. (in-person)