Judiciary of California

[2] The judicial system of California is the largest in the United States that is fully staffed by professional law-trained judges.

Although New York and Texas each technically have more judicial officers than California, most of them are not attorneys and have no formal legal training.

[5] The Supreme Court of California is headquartered in San Francisco, with branch offices in Los Angeles and Sacramento.

[9] It hears arguments and drafts full opinions for about 100 to 120 cases each year, of which about 20 are automatic death penalty appeals.

The districts are further divided into 19 divisions sitting throughout the state at 9 locations, and there are 105 justices serving on the Courts.

Unlike the state supreme court, the courts of appeal have mandatory review jurisdiction under the informal legal tradition in common law countries that all litigants are entitled to at least one appeal.

Under the common law, judicial opinions themselves have legal effect through the rule of stare decisis.

But because of their crushing caseloads (about 200 matters per justice per year), the courts of appeal are permitted to take the shortcut of selecting only the best opinions for publication.

This way, they can draft opinions fast and quickly dispose of the vast majority of cases, without worrying that they are accidentally making bad law.

There is also a separate reporter called the California Unreported Cases published independently starting in 1913 containing minor opinions that should have been published but simply were not, when the state supreme court was extremely overloaded with cases during its first half-century (resulting in the creation of the courts of appeal in 1904).

[18] California uses a modified Missouri Plan (merit plan) method of appointing judges, in which the Governor's office conducts an investigation of applicants in order to submit a list of potential applicants to the Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission for a formal vetting process that is not made public.

[33] The superior court administrator or executive officer serves as ex officio jury commissioner.

The (county) district attorney prosecutes crimes before the courts on behalf of California.

It is responsible for managing the admission of lawyers to the practice of law, investigating complaints of professional misconduct, and prescribing appropriate discipline.

All attorney admissions and disbarments are issued as recommendations of the State Bar, which are then routinely ratified by the Supreme Court.

[45] Median spending for a judicial office of the Los Angeles County Superior Court has risen from $3,177 in 1970 to $70,000 in 1994.

[46] California formerly had "justice of the peace" courts staffed by lay judges, but gradually phased them out after a landmark 1974 decision in which the Supreme Court of California unanimously held that it was a violation of due process to allow a non-lawyer to preside over a criminal trial which could result in incarceration of the defendant.

The California courts of appeal were added to the judicial branch by a constitutional amendment in 1904.