{"id":195216,"date":"2026-02-26T19:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/195216\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T19:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T19:05:08","slug":"san-francisco-court-clerks-launch-strike-over-staffing-and-criminal-case-backlogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/195216\/","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Court Clerks Launch Strike Over Staffing and Criminal Case Backlogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Borders said that staffing shortages have existed for years in the criminal division and are being exacerbated as the San Francisco district attorney\u2019s office files more cases.<\/p>\n

The union says a number of cases have been dropped after missing constitutionally mandated deadlines. Separately, the court has had to release some defendants pending trial after the San Francisco public defender\u2019s office, since May, has been rejecting some felony cases,<\/a> claiming it is also dealing with chronic understaffing and excessive workloads.<\/p>\n

City data<\/a> shows that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins filed 8,400 cases in 2025, compared to about 5,600 in 2021, during former District Attorney Chesa Boudin\u2019s last full year on the job.<\/p>\n

Borders said overburdened clerks have been put in positions that have led to paperwork errors, with consequences like keeping someone in custody longer than they need to be, or a person\u2019s sentence being incorrectly reflected.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing catastrophic has happened yet,\u201d he said, but \u201cwe would hate to be in a position where one of our members has their names on a minute order that was responsible for releasing somebody that wasn\u2019t supposed to be released, and then something horrible happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday, the union said it had presented management with \u201ccommonsense proposals\u201d that address the staffing and training concerns, but had been unable to reach any agreement to avert the strike.<\/p>\n

\"\"San Francisco Superior Court clerks and supporters rally outside the Hall of Justice in San Francisco on Feb. 26, 2026, as members of SEIU Local 1021 strike amid stalled contract negotiations over pay, staffing and workload concerns. (Beth LaBerge\/KQED)<\/p>\n

According to Court Executive Officer Brandon Riley, the Hall of Justice will remain open for mandated essential and emergency services during the strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cMandated services will proceed with the help of management employees who will triage and prioritize emergency matters for people who need help today,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Court resources will be shifted to prioritize cases with statutory deadlines, including criminal cases, custody arraignments, unlawful detainers and civil harassment and domestic violence matters.<\/p>\n

Matters without pressing statutory deadlines will be recessed, the court said, and clerks\u2019 offices could be closed. Some departments at the Hall of Justice, Civic Center Courthouse and Juvenile Justice Center will remain open.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how long the strike could last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Borders said that staffing shortages have existed for years in the criminal division and are being exacerbated as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-195216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}