Full story in the California Globe

By Aidan Chao

Los Angeles is facing a city budget deficit of just under $1 billion, due in large part to the extraordinary volume of liability claims stemming from lawsuits against the city. Los Angeles budgeted $100 million in 2025 for liability claims, but as City Administrator Matthew Szabo shared with the Los Angeles City Council in March of this year, “we are likely to spend $320 million,” exceeding what was budgeted by 220%.

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“Liability settlements have tripled from backed-up lawsuits during the pandemic in uncapped damages,” Bass said, drawing a direct line from the increase in liability suits to the city’s financial crisis.

In a post on X last fall, LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia shared the following:

In line with Controller Mejia, in an interview with the LAist, Council member Katy Yaroslavsky, chair of the Budget and Finance Committee critically reminded Angelenos that at, “the end of the day, every dollar that we spend on lawsuits is a dollar that we’re not spending on making our neighborhoods safer.”

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