California Superior Courts

California’s court system is the nation’s biggest and serves over thirty-nine million people — about 12 percent of the total American population.

About Superior Courts of California

There are fifty-eight trial courts in California, one in each county. A judge and sometimes a jury hears the testimony of witnesses and other proof in trial courts or superior courts and chooses cases by applying the appropriate law to the appropriate facts. The judiciary in California serve almost thirty-four million individuals.

Until June 1998, the trial courts of California were made up of superior and municipal courts, each with their own jurisdiction and the number of judges set by the Legislature. Proposition 220 file type icon was endorsed by California voters in June 1998, a constitutional amendment that allowed the judges in each county to merge their superior and municipal courts into a «unified», or single, superior court.

All 58 counties in California had also voted to unify their trial courts as of February 2001.

According to the Code of Civil Procedure of California:

• Superior courts proceedings shall be extended throughout the state.
• Day to day adjournments, or from time to time, shall be interpreted as recesses in the sessions and shall not prevent the Court from sitting at any time.
• Despite anything to the contrary contained in any other law of that State, the judges of the superior court of the county in which the main office is situated in that state may, at their discretion, take ownership of any savings and loan association whose company, property and assets are held by the Commissioner of Financial Institutions.
• By law, the superior court in any county may provide that, whenever all magistrates are absent from the county, any uncontested matter in which no proof is needed or which may be presented on affidavits shall be deemed to have been presented by the party or the attorney of the party or by the deadline set for the hearing upon filing with the clerk of a declaration of consent.
• There is a superior court appeal division in each county composed of three judges or four judges when the Chief Justice considers it necessary.

The Decision or Judgement of The Superior Court

The competition of two judges of the Superior Court’s appeal division shall be essential for the rendering of the judgment in each situation and for the transaction of any other company except that which the presiding judge of the division may do in the chambers. In an appeal, an appeal division’s decision shall contain a short declaration of the grounds for the judgement. There is inadequate a judgement saying only «affirmed» or «reversed».

Transcripts of the Superior Court

Court proceedings may be recorded or electronically taped by a court reporter.

Transcripts applications in civil and probate matters for privately owned court reporters must be created directly with the private court reporter. A paper transcript or a copy of an electronic recording may be accessible upon request, depending on the recording of a particular event.