BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                      



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          |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE            |                   SB 405|
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                                 THIRD READING


          Bill No:  SB 405
          Author:   Corbett (D)
          Amended:  As introduced
          Vote:     21

           
           SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE  :  3-1, 03/22/11
          AYES:  Evans, Corbett, Leno
          NOES:  Harman
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Blakeslee

           SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE  :  6-3, 05/26/11
          AYES:  Kehoe, Alquist, Lieu, Pavley, Price, Steinberg
          NOES:  Walters, Emmerson, Runner


           SUBJECT  :    Judgeships

           SOURCE  :     Judicial Council


           DIGEST  :    This bill ratifies the Judicial Councils 
          conversion authority for the 2011-12 fiscal year relative 
          to subordinate judicial officer positions (SJOs).

           ANALYSIS  :    Existing law provides that the Legislature 
          shall prescribe the number of judges and provide for the 
          officers and employees of each superior court.  (Cal. 
          Const., art. VI, Sec. 4.)  Under existing law, the 
          Legislature may provide for the trial courts to appoint 
          officers such as commissioners to perform subordinate 
          judicial duties.  (Cal. Const., art. VI, Sec. 22.)  
          Existing law also authorizes the courts to appoint 
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          subordinate judicial officers, and sets forth their duties 
          and titles.  (Gov. Code Sec. 71622.)

          Existing law permits the conversion of as many as 162 
          subordinate judicial officer positions into judgeships in 
          eligible courts, not to exceed 16 conversions each fiscal 
          year, based on specified criteria developed by the Judicial 
          Council.  (Gov. Code Sec. 69615.) 

          Existing law authorizes the Judicial Council to also 
          convert annually, in eligible superior courts, up to 10 
          additional subordinate judicial officer positions to 
          judgeships, upon vacancy, where the conversions will result 
          in a judge being assigned to a family or juvenile law 
          assignment previously presided over by an SJO. (Gov. Code 
          Sec. 69615.)  Existing law requires that these conversions 
          must be ratified by the Legislature by statutory enactment 
          other than the annual Budget Act. 

          This bill ratifies the Judicial Council's authority to 
          convert 10 SJO positions to judgeships in the 2011-12 
          fiscal year where the conversion will result in a judge 
          being assigned to a family law or juvenile law assignment 
          previously presided over by an SJO.  

          This bill provides that this conversion shall be in 
          addition to any action taken under existing law to convert 
          up to 16 SJO positions per fiscal year to judgeships. 

          Under current law, the Legislature is responsible for 
          prescribing the number of judges and providing for the 
          officers and employees of each superior court.  (Cal. 
          Const., art. VI, Sec. 4.)  Existing law further permits the 
          Legislature to provide for, and the courts to appoint, SJOs 
          to assist the courts in carrying out their duties.  (Id. at 
          Sec. 22; Gov. Code Sec. 71622.)  According to the Judicial 
          Council, there are approximately 360 court commissioner 
          positions in the state's trial courts.

          Responding to the shortage of judges available to handle 
          the trial courts' workload, the Legislature has considered 
          numerous bills over the last several years that would have 
          established 150 new judgeships and authorized the 
          conversion of up to 162 existing SJOs, limited to 16 per 

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          fiscal year, to judgeships upon vacancy.  Largely due to 
          the economic recession, however, just 50 new judgeships 
          have been authorized and funded by the Legislature and 
          Governor.   In contrast, the Legislature and Governor have 
          authorized the conversion of 16 SJOs to judgeships in each 
          of the last four fiscal years (07-08, 08-09, 09-10, and 
          10-11).  And, at the time of the writing of this analysis, 
          language in the budget act will authorize an additional 16 
          conversions for fiscal year 11-12.

          Last year, the Legislature passed and the Governor signed 
          AB 2763 (Committee on Judiciary, Chap. 690, Stats. 2010) 
          which authorized the Judicial Council to convert up to 10 
          additional SJOs to judgeships each year, upon vacancy, if 
          the conversion of these additional positions would result 
          in a judge being assigned to a family or juvenile law 
          assignment previously presided over by an SJO.  Under AB 
          2763, that conversion must be ratified by the Legislature 
          by legislation other than the annual Budget Act.  This bill 
          would ratify the Judicial Council's conversion authority 
          for the 2011-12 fiscal year. 

           Comments
           
           The expanding role of SJOs  .  California's trial courts have 
          relied on SJOs for decades to assist in managing their 
          workload.  However, the perpetual shortage of authorized 
          judgeships has prompted courts to assign SJOs as temporary 
          judges.  In this capacity, there is nothing "subordinate" 
          about the role of SJOs in the judicial process.  
          Increasingly, SJOs are performing some of the most complex 
          and sensitive judicial duties, including core judicial 
          duties such as adjudicating juvenile and family law cases.  
          While SJOs must meet specified criteria for the job, SJOs 
          are, unlike judges, selected by the courts and not subject 
          to elections.  As noted in the Judicial Council's letter of 
          support for this bill, the use of SJOs as temporary judges 
          is expansive:

               Over the years, in the face of few or no new 
               judgeships being created, courts have had to hire SJOs 
               simply to meet the demands of their workload.  As a 
               result, these SJOs have not simply been assigned to 
               perform subordinate judicial duties, but in many cases 

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               they are assigned as temporary judges, possessing the 
               full power of judges.  The Judicial Council believes 
               that family law and juvenile law cases, among the 
               courts' most sensitive and often most complex, should 
               be assigned to judges whenever possible.  It has been 
               estimated that SJOs spend an average of 55 percent of 
               their time working as temporary judges, and in large 
               courts, the number is more like 75-80 percent.  In 
               practice, many SJOs are de facto judges, but without 
               the accountability to the public or the authority and 
               independence the Constitution provides.

          According to the Judicial Council, the number of annual SJO 
          vacancies created over the last three years has exceeded 
          the number of conversions (16) it is authorized to annually 
          execute.  The Legislature's approval last year of AB 2763 
          recognized that allowing the Judicial Council to expedite 
          the conversion of additional SJO positions to judgeships in 
          eligible superior courts where the conversion would result 
          in a judge being assigned to a family law or juvenile law 
          assignment helped to ensure that more family and juvenile 
          law cases would be heard by judges in the future.  This 
          bill would ratify that conversion for the 2011-12 fiscal 
          year. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  :    Appropriation:  No   Fiscal Com.:  Yes   
          Local:  No

          According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:

                          Fiscal Impact (in thousands)

           Major Provisions                2011-12     2012-13    
           2013-14   Fund  
          Conversion of SJO position              up to $300 
          annuallyGeneral*

          *Trial Court Trust Fund

           SUPPORT  :   (Verified  5/26/11)

          Judicial Council (source) 
          Executive Committee of the Family Law Section of the State 
          Bar

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           ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT  :    According to the author's office:
          
               Seeking to improve the handling of family and juvenile 
               law cases by increasing the likelihood that these 
               matters are presided over by judges and not 
               subordinate judicial officers, SB 405 (Corbett) 
               ratifies the authority of the Judicial Council to 
               convert 10 subordinate judicial officer positions to 
               judgeships in the 2011-12 fiscal year where the 
               conversion will result in a judge being assigned to a 
               family law or juvenile law assignment previously 
               presided over by a subordinate judicial officer.  

               For the past four years since the conversions of SJO 
               positions began? more than 16 SJO vacancies occurred 
               in courts eligible for conversion of these positions 
               to judgeships.  The annual cap of 16 conversions in 
               each fiscal year has resulted in courts either keeping 
               the vacancy for an extended period, impacting the 
               ability to serve the public, or filling the vacant 
               position with a new SJO, impacting the ability to 
               convert positions consistent with the stated intent of 
               the Legislature that these positions be converted to 
               judgeships in order to ensure that critical case 
               types, including family, probate, and juvenile law 
               matters, can be heard by judges.  
          

          RJG:nl  5/27/11   Senate Floor Analyses 

                         SUPPORT/OPPOSITION:  SEE ABOVE

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