Criticism of City Attorney

Re “City Attorney’s Office Takes Heat on Costly Settlements,” Oct. 24: Claims and money demands against the city of Los Angeles in police cases have increased dramatically over the past several years, while settlement costs and payouts are down. Three years ago I reorganized my office to create a police litigation unit. That unit has been a success by any measure- ment--as the facts in your article demonstrate--including in the protection of the municipal treasury. The police litigation unit achieved a favorable judgment in 10 of the 11 cases that went to trial so far this year.

Police officers are no longer automatically given the benefit of doubt by juries. Minor discrepancies or mishandled evidence get blown out of proportion by plaintiff attorneys playing to the cynical attitudes jurors now have toward police. Nevertheless, the deputy city attorneys in this office have better than a 90% success rate in police litigation cases.

By settling a lawsuit rather than risking a huge judgment at trial, we are not demonstrating a lack of support for the police. In fact, we are doing what government lawyers must do to protect all of our clients, including individual police officers facing large punitive damage awards and the city taxpayers who have to foot the bill to pay these large judgments.

The City Charter places responsibility for litigation with the City Council. My office provides the analysis of cases and the opportunity to the City Council to get a settlement in high-exposure cases. We review those proposals with the Police Department prior to presentation. The mayor’s suggestion that we should split the office of the city attorney is ill-advised, establishing an appointed counsel to handle civil litigation. There is no reason to believe that the mayor’s counsel could improve on a 90% success rate. An entirely new bureaucracy to handle the work would have to be established.

I’ve been working with the police chief to create a new high-level position in my office to work with the Police Department on a daily basis. That higher-level position would coordinate all legal services provided to the Police Department, including advice on employee relations, tactical operations and litigation. I look forward to the positive support of both the City Council and the chief of police to get the authorization for this position.

JAMES K. HAHN

City Attorney

Los Angeles