BILL ANALYSIS
AB 942
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 942 (Committee on Judiciary)
As Amended April 13, 2009
Majority vote
JUDICIARY 10-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Feuer, Tran, Brownley, |Ayes:|De Leon, Nielsen, |
| |Evans, Jones, Knight, | |Ammiano, Charles |
| |Krekorian, Lieu, Monning, | |Calderon, Davis, Duvall, |
| |Nielsen | |Fuentes, Hall, Harkey, |
| | | |Miller, John A. Perez, |
| | | |Price, Skinner, Solorio, |
| | | |Audra Strickland, |
| | | |Torlakson, Krekorian |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Seeks to improve the handling of family and juvenile law
cases in our courts. Specifically, this bill :
1)Authorizes the Judicial Council to convert up to an additional 10
subordinate judicial officer positions (SJOs) to judgeships each
year, upon vacancy, if the conversion of these additional
positions will result in a judge being assigned to a family or
juvenile law assignment previously presided over by a subordinate
judicial officer.
2)Requires the Judicial Council to prepare and submit to the
Legislature a Judicial Needs Assessment that revises the time
study specifically for family and juvenile law, to get a better
handle on the judicial resource needs of our family and juvenile
courts.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides that the Legislature may provide for the trial courts to
appoint officers such as commissioners to perform subordinate
judicial duties.
2)Authorizes the courts to appoint subordinate judicial officers,
and sets forth their duties and titles.
AB 942
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FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
1)Annual cost of up to $310,000 for conversion of 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 $31,000. These
additional costs will be funded through a reallocation of monies
in the Trial Court Trust Fund.
2)Minor absorbable costs to the Administrative Office of the Courts
to complete the needs assessment and report.
COMMENTS : This non-controversial bill seeks 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. The bill further seeks to ensure that there is
an appropriate understanding of the shortage of family and juvenile
law judges around the state so that this shortfall may begin to be
remedied in an appropriate manner. The bill is supported by the
Judicial Council and has no known opposition.
According to the Judicial Council, historically, SJO positions were
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 duties.
Conversion of these positions to judgeships when they become vacant
makes them both more accountable to the public and helps provide
better trust and confidence in the courts.
AB 159 (Jones), Chapter 722, Statutes of 2007, was enacted to
address a severe shortage in the number of trial court judgeships.
At that time, the Judicial Council noted potentially serious
consequences flowing from this deficiency in judicial resources,
including a significant decrease in Californians' access to the
courts, compromised public safety, an unstable business climate, and
enormous backlogs in some courts that inhibit fair, timely and
equitable justice. That bill, in addition to authorizing 50
additional judges, authorized the conversion of 162 SJOs, upon
vacancy, to judgeships to utilize the judicial resources more
efficiently and properly limit SJOs to subordinate judicial duties.
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When AB 159 was enacted, the Legislature capped at 16 the number of
conversions that may happen each fiscal year. According to the
Judicial Council, the number of conversions selected was based on an
estimate provided by the council during a budget subcommittee
hearing that it would likely take about 10 years to convert the 162
requested positions, as the positions may only convert upon vacancy.
For the first two years in which the council has converted
positions, that number has fallen short of the number SJO vacancies
that have occurred in courts that are eligible for conversions.
In 2002 the Judicial Council 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. This
Council policy has been echoed repeatedly. Among its many
recommendations, the Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster
Care (BRC) recommended that "Consistent with Judicial Council
policy, judges-not subordinate judicial officers-hear dependency and
delinquency cases. Pending a full transition from subordinate
judicial officers to judges (through reassignment or conversion of
subordinate judicial officer positions to judgeships), presiding
judges should continue the assignment of well-qualified and
experienced subordinate judicial officers to juvenile court."
This bill will therefore permit the Council to convert an additional
10 positions in each year. Consistent with the Legislature's
increased focused interest on family and juvenile law reform and
improvement, and with the enacted legislative findings and
declarations regarding the rationale for conversion of SJOs, the
Council's repeated statements that judges rather than SJOs should
preside over critical case types such as family and juvenile law,
the recommendation of the BRC, and the focused attention on family
law matters with the work of the Council's Elkins Family Law Task
Force, the bill will permit the Council to convert the additional 10
positions if and only if the conversion results in a judge being
assigned to a family or juvenile law assignment that was previously
presided over by an SJO. The bill does not impact the Council's
authority to convert the 16 positions already authorized by law.
The criteria related to the family or juvenile law assignment is
related only to conversions number 17 through 26.
Analysis Prepared by : Drew Liebert / JUD. / (916) 319-2334
AB 942
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