SB 848

Bill Subjects

Abstract

The California Constitution requires the Legislature to divide the state into districts, each containing a court of appeal with one or more divisions. Under existing statutory law, the state is divided into 6 court of appeal districts. The 4th Appellate District consists of the Counties of Inyo, San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, San Diego, and Imperial, which consists of 3 divisions. One division consists of 10 judges and holds its regular session in San Diego, a 2nd division consists of 7 judges and holds its regular sessions in the San Bernardino/Riverside area, and a 3rd division consists of 8 judges and holds its regular sessions in Orange County. This bill would reorganize the court of appeal districts into 7 districts by removing the Counties of San Bernardino, Inyo, and Riverside from the 4th Appellate District and creating a 7th Appellate District consisting of those districts. The 7th Appellate District would consist of one division of 7 judges and would hold its regular sessions in the San Bernardino/Riverside area, and the 4th Appellate District would thereafter consist of 2 divisions that would hold regular sessions in the Counties of San Diego and Orange. Existing law provides that upon the creation of a new court of appeal district or division, the Governor shall appoint judges to serve on that court, and specifies the procedures to be followed for the election of the judges. This bill would specify that those provisions would not apply to the creation of the 7th Appellate District, and that the existing justices of the division of the 4th Appellate District that would be reorganized as the 7th Appellate District would serve as the judges of the new district. The bill would specify that the terms of office of those judges would not be affected by the reorganization, and would also specify that no action by the Commission on Judicial Appointments would be necessary. The bill would specify that the judge serving as the currently presiding judge in the division of the 4th Appellate District that would create the new court of appeal district would serve as the administrative presiding judge of the new district.