In a recent article, City of LA's legal costs swell to $137 million over past two years, the Torrance Daily Breeze reported:

"The city of Los Angeles shelled out $137 million over the past two years for legal costs - nearly double the previous two-year period and enough to hire nearly 1,300 police officers and cover most of the public works budget, according to a report released Monday.

"The study by California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse also found that Los Angeles County spent $190 million on lawsuit verdicts, settlements and outside counsel in the same period compared to $138 million in the previous two years."