The Orange County Register concurs that lawsuits take a toll on cities and counties.

The editorial noted:

"California's largest cities and counties are facing tremendous budgetary issues, yet one cost that too often goes largely unnoticed is that paid out in verdicts, settlements and for outside legal counsel.

"A study conducted by California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse found that eight of the largest cities and nine of the largest counties in California spent $504.1 million to deal with lawsuits over fiscal 2007 and 2008."

And concluded with this final thought:

"CALA has been a reliable advocate for changing laws in ways that sensibly limit the kind of lawsuits that can be filed and the level of damages sought. The costs related in the group's latest study show the reason why."

Orange County Register "OC Watchdog" Terri Sforza reported a handful of local governments in California spent more than a half-billion dollars dealing with lawsuits over two years - including $14.2 million spent by the County of Orange and $4.4 million by the city of Anaheim.

Ms. Sforza also reported that of the nine counties examined, Orange County had the fourth-highest total spending on lawsuits - much more than similarly-sized San Diego and Santa Clara counties.

Michael Turnipseed, executive director of the Kern County Taxpayers Association, had an op-ed about CALA's cost report printed in the Bakersfield Californian. He wrote:

"The battle cry across every level of government is the same these days: "We don't have enough money." Our taxes have been raised statewide and we're constantly being threatened with even more tax increases. Cities and counties throughout California are working on ballot measures to take more of our tax money just to keep local governments afloat. The message we as taxpayers are being sent is clear -- our tax dollars are not providing enough revenue to effectively run government at the state and local levels.

"Yet pick up the same newspaper and right next to an article about a city or county's budget woes, you will likely see one about a multi-million dollar lawsuit just settled with the very same city or county. In the midst of record budget deficits, how can our tax dollars keep going toward exorbitant litigation costs?"

This week California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse released a study that examined how much money cities and counties throughout California have spent on legal costs in two recent fiscal years. The Los Angeles Daily News picked up on the story and took it one step further and solicited comments from area leaders including Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and LA County Risk Manager Rocky Armfield.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s highlighted how his office is working to reduce legal costs and protect taxpayer dollars: Here are Trutanich’s comments:

“City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, who recently marked his first 100 days in office, said he's taken a number of steps to reduce costs. This includes personally reviewing each case, bringing more cases in-house and asking outside law firms to discount their fees by 15 percent. As we move forward, we are looking at reducing those figures through management, by being involved in every step of the decision-making process, reviewing cases and expenses, being involved in the mediation and arbitration processes and taking more cases to trial rather than settling

In an effort to stop frivolous lawsuits, Trutanich's office is changing its tactics. One way you can stop the frivolous lawsuits is to make it costly for those who choose to sue the city.  If you bring a frivolous lawsuit against the city - thinking we were going to settle - we are going to attach fees and costs. We are no longer just showing up in court with a shield. We are coming to court with a sword and a shield, because it's about protecting taxpayer dollars."

The report this week by California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, or CALA, found that San Jose's annual litigation costs in the last couple years were a fraction of those for similarly-sized San Francisco and San Diego, as well as smaller cities such as Oakland and Sacramento."

For CALA's full report, click here.

The Los Angeles Daily News quoted California CALA Executive Director Tom Scott in an article about Los Angeles County's rising legal costs. Scott said:

"This is money that isn't going to fire (protection), isn't going to the sheriff and isn't going to parks and recreation," said Tom Scott, executive director of California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.  "It's going to litigation.  I think more than ever taxpayers are really getting frustrated."