| Los Angeles County Superior Court | |
|---|---|
| Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles | |
| Superior Court overview | |
| Jurisdiction | Los Angeles County, California |
| Superior Court executives | Lee Smalley Edmon, Presiding Judge John A. Clarke, Executive Officer/Clerk |
| Website | |
| lasuperiorcourt.org | |
The Superior Court of Los Angeles County is the Superior Court located in Los Angeles County. It is the largest single unified trial court in the United States.
The Superior Court operates 50 courthouses throughout the county. Currently, the Presiding Judge is Lee Smalley Edmon and John A. Clarke is the Executive Officer/Clerk. They, together with 5,400 employees, operate the nearly 600 courtrooms throughout the county, with an annual budget of $850 million.[1]
Contents |
When California declared its statehood in 1849 and became a part of the United States, the first California Constitution authorized the legislature to establish municipal and such other courts as it deemed necessary. The 1851 California Judiciary Act divided the state into districts, placing Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties into one district. Each district had its own court, below which were County and then Justice of the Peace Courts. Judge Agustin Olvera of the County Court and Judge Jonathan R. Scott of the Justice of the Peace Court were the first judges of these lower courts. Almost immediately the District Court system was burdened by the vast expanse of the district. District Judges was required to hold court proceedings where the cases were filed. Because of the distance District Court Judges had to travel to conduct trials and the sudden growth in population due to California Gold Rush, the District Court system became ineffective and non-responsive to the needs of its constituency.
In 1879 California adopted a new constitution and with it a revised court system. The District Courts became appeals courts below the State Supreme Court. To take over the District Courts original function the county Superior Courts were created. The new Superior Court of Los Angeles County began with two judges: Ygnacio Sepulveda and Volney E. Howard. In 1905, juvenile delinquency and dependency hearings were put under the Superior Court's jurisdiction, as were mental health hearing in 1914. Eventually the Superior Court’s jurisdiction came to include all civil, felony criminal, family law, Juvenile Delinquency and Dependency, and probate cases in the county.
Throughout its history the Superior Court had had a close relation with the county’s many Municipal Courts. By 1971 the Superior Court assumed responsibility for coordinating, providing and scheduling court interpreters for all courts in the County and by 1973 the Court had implemented a county wide system to process the payment of court appointed attorneys. The following year, 1974, all jury services in the county had been consolidated. In 1986 county-wide uniform criminal Local Court rules and uniform exhibit processing procedures were adopted to ensure consistency in how criminal cases were handled through the court system. By 1988 the Municipal and Superior Courts began to cross-assign cases to ease the county’s judicial back log. In 1993 the Superior Court adopted the Municipal Courts’ automated criminal case processing system; known as the Municipal Court Information it was rebranded the Trial Court Information System. Also in 1993 the Superior Court was administratively unified with several of the Municipal Courts. And by 1999 17 more Municipal Courts had joined. Finally on January 22nd, 2000, in accordance with Proposition 220 passed in 1998, the Judges of the Municipal and Superior Courts voted to merge into the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles.[2]
2.7 million new cases each year:
The state Administrative Office of the Courts maintains an official roster of all superior court judges, including the 431 judges of the L.A. Superior Court. Additionally, there are 140 commissioners, subordinate judicial officers who are elected by the judges of the Court. Notable judges:
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||