BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



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          SENATE THIRD READING
          SB 405 (Corbett)
          As Introduced February 16, 2011
          Majority vote 

           SENATE VOTE  :26-12  
           
           JUDICIARY           7-3         APPROPRIATIONS      12-5        
           
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 
          |Ayes:|Feuer, Atkins, Dickinson, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Blumenfield,     |
          |     |Huber, Huffman, Monning,  |     |Bradford, Charles         |
          |     |Wieckowski                |     |Calderon, Campos, Davis,  |
          |     |                          |     |Gatto, Hall, Hill, Lara,  |
          |     |                          |     |Mitchell, Solorio         |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
          |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
          |Nays:|Wagner, Beth Gaines,      |Nays:|Harkey, Donnelly,         |
          |     |Jones                     |     |Nielsen, Norby, Wagner    |
          |     |                          |     |                          |
           ----------------------------------------------------------------- 

           SUMMARY  :  Seeks to ratify an additional 10 subordinate judicial 
          officer (SJO) conversions to judgeships pursuant to AB 2763 
          (Feuer), Chapter 690, Statutes of 2010, to help address ongoing 
          shortages of juvenile and family law judicial officers.  
          Specifically,  this bill :

          1)Ratifies the authority of the Judicial Council to convert 10 
            SJO positions into judgeships in the 2011-12 fiscal year.

          2)Provides that the conversion must result in a judge being 
            assigned to a family or juvenile law department previously 
            presided over by a subordinate judicial officer.

          3)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.

           EXISTING LAW  :

          1)Provides that the Legislature shall prescribe the number of 
            judges and provide for the officers and employees of each 
            superior court.  Under existing law, the Legislature may 








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            provide for the trial courts to appoint officers such as 
            commissioners to perform subordinate judicial duties.  
            Existing law also authorizes the courts to appoint SJOs, and 
            sets forth their duties and titles.  

          2)Permits the conversion of as many as 162 SJO positions into 
            judgeships in eligible courts, not to exceed 16 conversions 
            each fiscal year, based on specified criteria developed by the 
            Judicial Council.  

          3)Authorizes the Judicial Council to also convert annually, in 
            eligible superior courts, up to 10 additional SJO 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.  Existing law requires 
            that these conversions must be ratified by the Legislature by 
            statutory enactment other than the annual Budget Act.  
                
            FISCAL EFFECT  :  According to the Assembly Appropriations, annual 
          cost of up to $270,000 for conversion of up to 10 SJOs to 
          judgeships.  For each conversion of an SJO position to a 
          judgeship, the additional annual cost, based on salary 
          differences between the two positions, is approximately $27,000. 
           The Judicial Council indicates that these additional costs will 
          be funded through a reallocation of monies in the Trial Court 
          Trust Fund. 

           COMMENTS  :  This non-controversial bill seeks to ratify the 
          conversion of ten SJO positions to judgeships for juvenile and 
          family law positions.  The author notes:
               
               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 








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               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.  
               
               While the cases coming before the Judicial Branch 
               have increased as a result of population growth, 
               trial court judgeships have not kept pace with 
               demand. Authorized trial courts judgeships have 
               grown by 8.5 percent while the population in 
               California has grown by more than 33 percent. 
               Family law and juvenile law cases are among the 
               courts' most sensitive and often most complex 
               cases.  

          In a 2010 report the Judicial Council analyzed the need for more 
          judges in California's courts.  The Council compared the amount 
          of judges necessary for court operation with the amount of 
          judicial positions currently authorized and funded and 
          determined, "Ýt]he total statewide need for judicial officers is 
          currently equivalent to 2,352 positions.  Including 50 
          statutorily authorized but not yet funded and therefore unfilled 
          judicial positions, the number of authorized judicial positions 
          is currently 2,022.  Thus, the net need for new judgeships is 
          330 or, as a percentage of the total need, the judicial branch 
          has a 14 percent shortfall."  

          In order to remedy the shortfall the Legislature has authorized 
          100 new judges since 2006.  However, because of budget 
          constraints only 50 of the judges have been funded.  In 2007 the 
          Legislature passed AB 159 (Jones), Chapter 722, Statutes of 
          2007, which authorized the conversion of 162 SJO positions into 
          judgeships at the rate of 16 per year, subject to annual 
          Legislative authorization.  All 16 positions have been 
          authorized every year since 2007.  Despite adding 114 judges to 
          the bench since 2007 (an increase of 8.5%), the Judicial Council 








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          notes these increases are failing to keep pace with population 
          growth (population grew 33% over the same time period).  Until 
          the rate of new judges meets the rate of population growth (and 
          accompanying increase in litigation) the state court will 
          continue to see its work load per judge grow and the judicial 
          process continue to slow.  While not eliminating the problem, 
          the author notes that this bill will increase the amount of 
          judges on the bench and lessen some of the backlog in the family 
          and juvenile departments of the Superior Court. 

          According to the Judicial Council, SJOs were originally created 
          to assist the courts with needs for judicial-like functions when 
          new judgeships were pending and not yet authorized.  SJOs, 
          unlike judges, are appointed by county courts and are not 
          directly accountable to the public through the electoral 
          process.  Nonetheless, in recent years as caseloads increased 
          without a corresponding increase in sitting judges, the SJO's 
          role has grown.  Between 1989 and 1999 the number of SJOs 
          increased 60%while the number of judges on the bench grew 1% .  
          To address the chronic shortage in sitting judges, Superior 
          Courts began appointing SJOs as temporary judges and allowed 
          them to handle core judicial duties.  SJOs now handle an array 
          of cases from complex litigation to family law.  By converting 
          SJOs to full judgeships the state can ensure that more judicial 
          officers, especially those in the sensitive family and juvenile 
          justice departments, are full time judges.

          This bill ratifies the Judicial Council's authority to convert 
          10 SJO positions in the fiscal year 2011-12 so long as 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."  Given the detailed language, any 
          SJO position converted into a judgeship should stay in family or 
          juvenile court.  


           Analysis Prepared by  :   Drew Liebert / JUD. / (916) 319-2334 


                                                                FN: 0002188












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