BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 2745
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Date of Hearing: April 30, 2014
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
AB 2745 (Committee on Judiciary) - As Introduced: March 4,
2014
Policy Committee:
JudiciaryVote:10-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill:
1)Ratifies the authority of the Judicial Council to, in 2014-15,
convert 10 subordinate judicial officers (SJOs) to judgeships
assigned to family or juvenile law.
2)Allows the Judicial Council, by rule of court, to increase,
but not reduce, the procedures for family centered case
resolution currently set forth in statute.
FISCAL EFFECT
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
1)Background and Purpose . According to the Judicial Council, SJO
positions were historically created and funded at the county
level to address courts' needs for judicial-like resources
when new judgeships were pending or not yet authorized by the
Legislature. Unlike judges, SJOs are not directly accountable
to the public, but due to the shortages of judges, are
performing some of the most complex and sensitive judicial
AB 2745
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duties. Conversion of these positions to judgeships when they
become vacant makes them both more accountable to the public
and, the author contends, helps provide better trust and
confidence in the courts.
AB 159 (Jones)/Statutes of 2007, in addition to authorizing 50
additional trial court judgeships, authorized the conversion
of 162 SJOs to judgeships, with a cap of 16 conversions per
year and subject to Legislative authorization through the
budget, which has occurred each year. On top of these 162
positions, AB 2763 (Feuer)/Statutes of 2010, authorized
conversion of an additional 10 SJO positions per year to
judgeships, but only to fill SJO vacancies in a family law or
juvenile law assignments in order to address shortages of
judges in these areas. (The Judicial Council and other parties
have identified family and juvenile law matters among those
that are of such a nature as to require judges, rather than
SJOs, to preside over them whenever possible.)
AB 2745 fulfills the requirement in AB 2763 that the
conversion of 10 SJOs be ratified by statutory enactment other
than the Budget Act.
The bill also makes a technical cleanup to family centered
case resolution procedures, to ensure that the statute
codified in 2010 cannot be reduced by rule of court.
2)Related Legislation . SB 1190 (Jackson), pending in Senate
Judiciary, authorizes two additional appellate court judges
and 50 additional trial court judges.
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081