Los Angeles County Superior Court

Stanley Mosk Courthouse in 1983

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 Los Angeles County Court and Judge Jonathan R. Scott of the Los Angeles 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 were required to hold court proceedings where the cases were filed. Because of the distances district court judges had to travel to conduct trials and the sudden growth in population due to the 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 courts' jurisdiction, as were mental health hearing in 1914. Eventually, the superior courts' jurisdiction came to include all civil, felony criminal, family law, juvenile delinquency and dependency, and probate cases in its county.

Throughout its history, the superior court had had a close relationship 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 countywide system to process the payment of court-appointed attorneys. By 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 backlog. In 1993, the superior court adopted the municipal courts’ automated criminal case processing system; known as the Municipal Court Information, it was later rebranded the Trial Court Information System. Also in 1993, the superior court was administratively unified with several of the municipal courts. And by 1999, seventeen more municipal courts had joined. Finally on January 22, 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.[5]

On November 14, 2012, Lee Smalley Edmon, presiding judge of the L.A. County Superior Court, announced the closing of ten courthouses, including those in Beverly Hills, West Los Angeles, Malibu, Huntington Park, Whittier, Pomona and San Pedro due to budget cuts.[6]

The Los Angeles Superior Court mission statement is "The Los Angeles Superior Court is dedicated to serving our community by providing equal access to justice through the fair, timely and efficient resolution of all cases"[7]

The court uses the California Court Case Management System (CCMS) v3,[11] and exposes services to the public such as the Criminal Defendant Index, Civil Party Name Search, Civil Case Document Images, Traffic Ticket Online Services, e-File Small Claims, and Divorce Judgment Documents. The difference between CCMS and these other services is similar to the difference between the federal CM/ECF and PACER systems.

The court has nearly 5,400 employees, operates nearly 600 courtrooms throughout the county, and has an annual budget of $850 million.[4] The court has 2.7 million new cases each year:

• 1.7 million traffic tickets
• About 500,000 criminal cases
• Nearly 120,000 family law cases
• Over 150,000 civil lawsuits

Pursuant to California Government Code and the California Rules of Court, the Los Angeles County Superior Court has adopted Local Rules for its government and the government of its officers.[12][13] The Presiding Judge assigns cases to departments and judges to departments.[14][15] Nominations and election of the Presiding and Assistant Presiding Judge are made by all judges and take place between September and October of each year.[16][17] All departments are divided into several principal divisions under the policy and procedures established by its supervising judge, subject to the approval of the Executive Committee and the Presiding Judge.[14]

There are several officers of the court, including judges, jurors, commissioners, prosecutors, defense attorneys, clerks, bailiffs, and court reporters.

• Los Angeles Times Bombing case (leading to the collapse of the labor movement in Los Angeles and the indictment of defense counsel Clarence Darrow for jury tampering)
• Hillside Strangler
• Caryl Chessman kidnaping and rape trial (and imposition of death penalty)
• Charles Manson murders
• O. J. Simpson murder case
• The Onion Field
• McMartin preschool trial
• Phil Spector murder of Lana Clarkson
• Lee Marvin palimony case
• Trial of Conrad Murray (Michael Jackson's last doctor)

• Superior Courts of California
  • Santa Clara County Superior Court
  • Sacramento County Superior Court
  • Alameda County Superior Court

• Official website