Originally, the 1901 courthouse was surmounted by a cupola and dome, but this was removed following the 1957 San Francisco earthquake which had left the structure in a precarious state.

[4] The 1933 courthouse, originally built as the Contra Costa County Hall of Records, occupies the block bounded by Court, Ward, Pine, and Main, adjacent to the 1901 courthouse across Main Street; it was built to add space for court functions, driven by the population growth of the county.

[6] On November 11, 2003, just days before he left office after an unprecedented recall vote, California Governor Gray Davis appointed Barry Goode to serve on the Contra Costa County Superior Court.

[7] In June 2019, Judge John Laettner was found guilty of willful misconduct by a three-person panel appointed by the California Commission on Judicial Performance, upon its findings that he had "engaged in misconduct on numerous occasions over the past decade, making inappropriate comments to women and increasing a defendant’s bail without a hearing..." Deputy public defender Rebecca Brackman of the Contra Costa Public Defenders Association, was quoted by San Francisco Chronicle as stating that the outcome is an “overwhelming rebuke of Judge Laettner’s actions” and that “This sends a clear signal that judges need to uphold our community values of fairness, equity, and basic dignity and respect, regardless of gender, race, and background”.

There are also three branch locations in Richmond (George D. Carroll), Pittsburg (Richard E. Arnason), and Walnut Creek.