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119-559: The superior courts are the lowest level of state courts in California holding general jurisdiction on civil and criminal matters. Above them are the six California courts of appeal , each with appellate jurisdiction over the superior courts within their districts, and the Supreme Court of California . As of 2007, the superior courts of California consisted of over 1,500 judges, and make up the largest part of California's judicial system, which

238-574: A "Key Numbering System" with a unique number for every conceivable legal topic. The U.S. federal government does not publish an official reporter for the federal courts at the circuit and district levels. However, just as the UK government uses the ICLR reporters by default, the U.S. courts use the unofficial West federal reporters for cases after 1880, which are the Federal Reporter (for courts of appeals) and

357-522: A Court of Appeal justice. Some of the appellate districts (First and Second) are divided into divisions that have four appellate justices, who are randomly selected to form three-justice panels for each appellate case, and whose workloads are divided semi-randomly to ensure even division of work. Some of the appellate districts (Third, Fifth, and Sixth) are not divided into divisions; for each appellate case, three-justice panels are semi-randomly drawn, again to ensure even division of work. The Fourth District

476-457: A catalyst for reform of trial court funding because it placed California counties into such severe financial distress that they could no longer bear the burden of such a partially-funded mandate . The paradox of state judicial officers working in county-operated organizations culminated in a 1996 case in which the Supreme Court of California upheld the constitutionality of a statute under which

595-503: A circuit-riding court. The two divisions shared jurisdiction over Orange County until the creation of Division Three in 1982. The Fourth District was the first Court of Appeal to get a custom-built courthouse of its own in January 1999, when Division Two moved from San Bernardino to a newly-built courthouse in Riverside. The First, Second, and Third Districts have always shared courthouses with

714-627: A computerized legal research system. The Commonwealth Law Reports are the authorised reports of decision of the High Court of Australia . The Federal Court Reports are the authorised reports of decisions of the Federal Court of Australia (including the Full Court). Each state and territory has a series of authorised reports, e.g. the Victorian Reports, of decisions of the superior courts of

833-493: A court of a superior (sometimes, the same) jurisdiction dealing with a similar set of facts. Thus, the regular publication of such opinions is important so that everyone— lawyers , judges , and laymen—can all find out what the law is, as declared by judges. Official law reports or reporters are those authorized for publication by statute or other governmental ruling. Governments designate law reports as official to provide an authoritative, consistent, and authentic statement of

952-414: A jurisdiction's primary law . Official case law publishing may be carried out by a government agency, or by a commercial entity. Unofficial law reports, on the other hand, are not officially sanctioned and are published as a commercial enterprise. In Australia and New Zealand (see below), official reports are called authorised reports—unofficial reports are referred to as unauthorised reports. For

1071-408: A non-lawyer judge. Another change was that all new justice court judges after that point in time had to be attorneys. The next major attempt at trial court reform and unification started in 1992 when state senator Bill Lockyer introduced Senate Constitutional Amendment 3, which would have unified the superior, municipal and justice courts in each county into a single "district court". In response,

1190-569: A non-lawyer to preside over a criminal trial which could result in incarceration of the defendant. This was a "bombshell" decision because at the time, non-lawyer judges were presiding over 127 justice courts. In response, the Judicial Council of California arranged for the immediate enactment of legislation to upgrade 22 attorneys already sitting as justice court judges from part-time to full-time service and allow them to " ride circuit " and hear such trials in any justice court then presided over by

1309-479: A part-time basis, either by laymen who also operated outside businesses or attorneys in private practice. Chief Justice Phil S. Gibson remarked that "there are very few lawyers who can correctly name all the types of trial courts in the state, much less give the sources and extent of their jurisdiction." To fix this colossal mess, the judicial council proposed and the legislature enacted the Court Act of 1949 to reduce

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1428-468: A single part-time commissioner. To be eligible to become a superior court judge in California, one must have been a member of the State Bar of California for at least ten years. One quirk of California law is that when a party petitions the appellate courts for a writ of mandate (California's version of mandamus ), the case name becomes [petitioner name] v. Superior Court (that is, the superior court

1547-581: A specific group of states. The National Reporter System is now the dominant unofficial reporter system in the U.S., and 21 states have discontinued their own official reporters and certified the appropriate West regional reporter as their official reporter. West and its rival, LexisNexis , both publish unofficial reporters of U.S. Supreme Court opinions. West also publishes the West American Digest System to help lawyers find cases in its reporters. West digests and reporters have always featured

1666-687: A thorough confidential evaluation of the candidate. Next, the Governor officially nominates the candidate, who must then be evaluated by the Commission on Judicial Appointments, which consists of the Chief Justice of California, the Attorney General of California, and a senior presiding justice of the Court of Appeal. The Commission holds a public hearing and if satisfied with the nominee's qualifications, confirms

1785-483: Is Chancery Law Chronicles, which now publishes verdicts of Supreme Court of Bangladesh. After the Supreme Court of Bangladesh was established in 1972, its online law report is Supreme Court Online Bulletin and it initially published a law report, containing the judgments, orders and decisions of the Court. Another widely used law report in the country is the Bangladesh Legal Decisions which is published by

1904-411: Is a vacancy on the Supreme Court of California, or if a Supreme Court justice recuses themself from a case, a Court of Appeal justice is temporarily assigned to hear each Supreme Court case requiring such assignment. When there are vacancies on the Court of Appeal, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court temporarily assigns a judge from the superior court or a retired justice of the Court of Appeal to sit as

2023-471: Is at issue. All California appellate courts are required by the California Constitution to decide criminal cases in writing with reasons stated (meaning that even in criminal appeals where the defendant's own lawyer has tacitly conceded that the appeal has no merit, the appellate decision must summarize the facts and law of the case and review possible issues independently before concluding that

2142-496: Is available, permitted parties to rely on any report "with the name of a barrister annexed to it". While maritime cases often have a contract or tort element and are reported in the standard volumes, the standard source for maritime cases is the Lloyd's Law Reports, which covers matters including maritime matters such as carriage of goods by sea , international trade law , and admiralty law . The Session Cases report cases heard in

2261-940: Is divided into five non-geographical divisions with four justices each: Division One: Division Two: Division Three: Division Four: Division Five: The California Court of Appeal for the Second District is one of the first three appellate districts created in 1904 and has its main courthouse in Los Angeles and the secondary courthouse, hosting Division Six, in Ventura . Division Six handles appeals from San Luis Obispo , Santa Barbara , and Ventura Counties, while Divisions One through Five, Seven, and Eight handle appeals from Los Angeles County . Each division has four justices. Division One: Division Two: Division Three: Division Four: Division Five: Division Six: Division Seven: Division Eight: The California Court of Appeal for

2380-474: Is in turn one of the largest court systems in the United States . Superior court judges are elected by each county's voters to six-year terms. California attorneys are allowed to run against sitting superior court judges at their retention elections, and have occasionally succeeded in doing so. Vacancies in the superior courts are filled by appointments made by the governor . Because Los Angeles County has

2499-546: Is located in Riverside . It handles appeals from Inyo , Riverside , and San Bernardino Counties. It currently has seven justices. Justices: The Division Three courthouse is located in Santa Ana . It handles appeals from Orange County . It has eight justices. Justices: The Fourth District was formed by a division of the Second District pursuant to legislation that went into effect on June 5, 1929. The first decision made by

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2618-465: Is no horizontal stare decisis in the California Court of Appeal"; Court of Appeal decisions are not binding between divisions or even between panels of the same division. Thus, all superior courts (and hence all litigants) are bound by the decision of a Court of Appeal if it is the only published California precedent that articulates a point of law relevant to a particular set of facts, even if

2737-587: Is not divided into divisions. Justices: The California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District is unique in that it is divided into three geographical divisions that are administratively separate, which even have different case number systems, and yet remain referred to as a single district. The Division One courthouse is located in San Diego . It handles appeals from Imperial and San Diego Counties. It has 10 justices. Justices: The Division Two courthouse

2856-660: Is supplemented by other reports such as the Scottish Civil Case Reports and Green's Weekly Digest. In each state of the United States , there are published reports of all cases decided by the courts having appellate jurisdiction going back to the date of their organization. There are also complete reports of the cases decided in the United States Supreme Court and the inferior federal courts having appellate jurisdiction since their creation under

2975-692: Is the most-cited law journal and it ranks among the country's most-cited law reviews of any kind. Published monthly, the MLR provides timely treatment of significant developments in law through articles contributed by judges, leading scholars and practitioners. Bangladesh Legal Decisions is published under the authority of the Bangladesh Bar Council. The other law reports include Bangladesh Law Chronicles, Lawyers and Jurists, BCR, ADC, Bangladesh Legal Times and Bangladesh Law Times. The online law report in Bangladesh

3094-425: Is the official reporter for Supreme Court decisions. In addition, some private reporters have been authorised to publish the Court's decisions. Pakistan inherited a common law system upon independence from Great Britain in 1947, and thus its legal system relies heavily on law reports. The most comprehensive law book is the "Pakistan Law Decisions" (PLD), which contains judgments from the Supreme Court of Pakistan ,

3213-489: Is the respondent on appeal), and the real opponent is then listed below those names as the " real party in interest ". This is why several U.S. Supreme Court decisions in cases that originated in California bear names like Asahi Metal Industry Co. v. Superior Court (1987) and Burnham v. Superior Court of California (1990). The underlying justification is that the writ jurisdiction of the California Courts of Appeal

3332-536: Is to make an order directing the Superior Court to enter an order in its records, while the real party in interest has standing to oppose the appellate application for a writ. Normally, there is "no appearance for respondent", but in certain rare circumstances, the Superior Court does have standing to oppose an application for a writ, and has actually done so. Another quirk is that because the superior courts are now fully unified with all courts of inferior jurisdiction,

3451-453: Is unique in that it is divided into three geographically-based divisions that are administratively separate, each of which works much like the Third, Fifth, and Sixth Districts. When the presiding justice of a district or division is part of the three-justice panel, they serve as the presiding justice on the case. When the presiding justice is not part of the three-justice panel, the senior justice of

3570-640: The Federal Supplement (for district courts). For cases from federal circuit and district courts prior to 1880, U.S. courts use Federal Cases . The Federal Reporter , the Federal Supplement , and Federal Cases are all part of the NRS and include headnotes marked with West key numbers. West's NRS also includes several unofficial state-specific reporters for large states like California . The NRS now numbers well over 10,000 volumes; therefore, only

3689-720: The Pacific Reporter . In 1959, West began publishing both Supreme Court and Court of Appeal opinions in West's California Reporter , and no longer included Court of Appeal opinions in the Pacific Reporter . Due to their huge caseloads and volume of output, the Courts of Appeal in turn see the largest number of decisions appealed to the state supreme court and the Supreme Court of the United States. A few famous U.S. Supreme Court cases, such as Burnham v. Superior Court of California , came to

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3808-535: The United States Patents Quarterly (USPQ). Today, both Westlaw and LexisNexis also publish a variety of official and unofficial reporters covering the decisions of many federal and state administrative agencies which possess quasi-judicial powers. A recent trend in American states is for bar associations to join a consortium called Casemaker . Casemaker gives members of a state bar access to

3927-490: The Apex Law Reports (ALR) provides timely treatment of significant developments in law through articles contributed by judges, leading scholars and practitioners. The Law Messenger is an internationally standard law report which started publication in 2016. It is the first law journal in Bangladesh which specifically publishes law decisions of Supreme Court of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan only. Mainstream Law Reports (MLR)

4046-503: The California Law Revision Commission published a comprehensive study in January 1994 which carefully evaluated options for the proposed court's name such as "district", "superior", "county", "trial", "unified", and "circuit", and concluded that the preferable name was "superior court". The Commission acknowledged the name could be confusing due to the absence of any inferior courts after unification, but contended this

4165-523: The Free Access to Law Movement . Many law librarians and academics have commented on the changing system of legal information delivery brought about by the rapid growth of the World Wide Web . Professor Bob Berring writes that the "primacy of the old paper sets [print law reports] is fading, and a vortex of conflicting claims and products is spinning into place". In theory, court decisions posted on

4284-712: The High Court , Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of New Zealand . The reports, which were initially sorted by volume, are sorted by year. Three volumes per year are now published, with the number of volumes having increased over time from one, to two and now to three. The reports do not focus on any particular area of law, with subject specific reports filling this niche. There are approximately 20 privately published report series focusing on specialist areas of law. Some areas are covered by more than one report series—such as employment, tax and family law. Most Irish law reports are contained in The Irish Reports (IR), published by

4403-550: The Judicial Council of California . The concept of having a superior court of general jurisdiction in each of California's counties dates back to the ratification of the second California Constitution in 1879. Previously, the original California Constitution of 1849 and the California Judiciary Act of 1851 had created multi-county district courts of general jurisdiction which supervised county courts and justice of

4522-745: The Supreme Court Reports . There are also general reporters, such as the long-running Dominion Law Reports , that publishes cases of national significance. Other law report series include the Canadian Criminal Cases , the Canadian Criminal Reports , the Ontario Reports and the Rapports Juridiques du Québec . Neutral citations are also used to identify cases. The UK Supreme Court publishes on its own website

4641-571: The Supreme Court of New South Wales . The Victorian Reports are published by Little William Bourke on behalf of the Council of Law Reporting in Victoria and cover the Supreme Court of Victoria . The New Zealand Law Reports (NZLR) are the authorised reports of the New Zealand Council for Law Reporting and have been published continuously since 1883. The reports publish cases of significance from

4760-456: The U.S. state of California . The state is geographically divided along county lines into six appellate districts. The Courts of Appeal form the largest state-level intermediate appellate court system in the United States, with 106 justices. The decisions of the Courts of Appeal are binding on the California superior courts , and both the Courts of Appeal and the superior courts are bound by

4879-591: The United States Constitution . The early reporters were unofficial as they were published solely by private entrepreneurs, but in the middle of the 19th century, the U.S. Supreme Court and many state supreme courts began publishing their own official reporters. In the 1880s, the West Publishing Company started its National Reporter System (NRS), which is a family of regional reporters, each of which collects select state court opinions from

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4998-579: The case citation format. Historically, the term reporter was used to refer to the individual persons who actually compile, edit, and publish such opinions. For example, the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States is the person authorized to publish the Court's cases in the bound volumes of the United States Reports . Today, in American English , reporter also denotes

5117-508: The "Civil Law Cases" (CLC), which as the name suggests deals with Civil cases; the "Pakistan Criminal Law Journal" (PCrLJ), which reports Criminal Cases; and the "Pakistan Tax Decisions" (PTD), on the Income Tax tribunal cases and their appeals. Kenya's first output of law reports was in the form of volumes under the citation E.A.L.R (East African Law Reports). They were first published between 1897 and 1905. Seven of these volumes were compiled by

5236-538: The California Code of Judicial Conduct and can be removed prior to the expiration of their terms by the Commission on Judicial Performance. In order to protect judicial independence (and because the losing party to a lawsuit will almost always regard the judge who ruled against them to be incompetent or biased), the CJP generally only initiates removal proceedings in cases of severe or extensive judicial misconduct. When there

5355-470: The California Constitution was amended to provide for the present retention election system, where the voters are given the choice to retain or reject a candidate. To date no incumbent has been denied retention. To fill a vacant position, the Governor must first submit a candidate's name to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation of the State Bar of California , which prepares and returns

5474-683: The Chief Justices of the Territories and the presiding judge of the Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa. Following the collapse of the East African Community, under whose auspices the reports were published, the reports went out of publication. The period before the resumption of the East Africa Law Reports saw sporadic and transitory attempts at law reporting. Firstly, with the authority of the then Attorney-General, six volumes named

5593-401: The Court Act to become fully effective, a constitutional amendment had to be submitted to the state electorate as Proposition 3, which was duly approved on November 7, 1950. Despite ongoing calls for further reform and trial court unification, California's trial court system remained quite complex for several more decades. In 1971, a legislative select committee found that the trial court system

5712-516: The Court of Session and Scottish cases heard on appeal in the House of Lords . The Justiciary Cases report from the High Court of Justiciary . Those two series are the most authoritative and are cited in court in preference to other report series, such as the Scots Law Times , which reports sheriff court and lands tribunal cases in addition to the higher courts. The law reports service of Scotland

5831-478: The Courts announced that the process of transferring 532 facilities to state control was complete with the transfer of the Glenn County Superior Courthouse. Number in parentheses represent cities/communities with multiple courthouses County seats are highlighted in bold . California courts of appeal The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in

5950-465: The Courts of Appeal is to work for the Governor, especially as appointments secretary, cabinet secretary, or legal affairs secretary. Terms of both Court of Appeal and Supreme Court justices are 12 years. However, if a nominee is confirmed to an existing seat partway through a term, the nominee can only serve the remaining period of the term before standing for election. All California appellate justices must undergo retention elections every 12 years at

6069-729: The Fifth District, with headquarters in Fresno, was created to hear appeals from San Joaquin Valley counties. The Fourth District's remaining territory was still enormous (San Bernardino County is the single largest county in the contiguous United States by area); in 1965, the Fourth District split itself into Division One, sitting permanently in San Diego, and Division Two, sitting permanently in San Bernardino (now Riverside), meaning it would no longer be

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6188-658: The Fourth District was on October 16, 1929, in the case of Mills v. Mills (1929) 101 Cal.App. 248 [281 P. 707]. Originally, appeals from all of Southern California (including the San Joaquin Valley) were heard by the state supreme court sitting in Los Angeles, and then the Second District took over most of that caseload when it was created in 1904. Lawyers from the rest of Southern California outside of Los Angeles County grew tired of having to travel hundreds of miles to and from Los Angeles just to argue appeals. They lobbied for

6307-476: The Governor. Each district was assigned an ordinal number (i.e., first, second, and third). The first nine justices included the five members of the Supreme Court Commission, which had been simultaneously abolished by the same constitutional amendment. In 1966, the word "District" was dropped from the official names of the Courts of Appeal by another constitutional amendment which extensively revised

6426-650: The Hon Mr Justice R. W. Hamilton, who was then the Chief Justice of the Protectorate and the reports covered all courts of different jurisdictions. The 1922–1956 period saw the emergence of some twenty-one volumes of the Kenya Law Reports (under the citation K.L.R). These reports included the decisions of the High Court only and were collated, compiled and edited by different puisne judges and magistrates. Then came

6545-676: The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for Ireland. Other reports are contained in the Irish Law Reports Monthly (ILRM) and various online collections of court decisions. In Bangladesh, the law reports are published according to the provisions of the Law Reports Act, 1875. There are many law reports now in Bangladesh. The most widely known being the Dhaka Law Report which started publication in 1949. Published monthly,

6664-560: The Kenya Law Reports" (section 3 of the Act). The Kenya Law Reports are the official law reports of the Republic of Kenya which may be cited in proceedings in all courts of Kenya (section 21 of the Act). Cases of Hong Kong are predominantly published in the authorised Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal Reports (HKCFAR) and Hong Kong Law Reports and Digests (HKLRD), as well as the unauthorised but

6783-429: The Kenyan Parliament passed the National Council for Law Reporting Act, 1994 and gave the Council the exclusive mandate of: "publication of the reports to be known as the Kenya Law Reports which shall contain judgments, rulings and opinions of the superior courts of record and also undertake such other publications as in the opinion of the Council are reasonably related to or connected with the preparation and publication of

6902-451: The Legislature to add one or two justices at a time to existing divisions. This explains why the First and Second Districts were traditionally expanded by adding more divisions, and then much of the Second District's territory was broken off to form the Fourth and Fifth Districts. The 1966 constitutional amendment authorized the Legislature to create divisions consisting of "a presiding justice and 2 or more associate justices." Relying on

7021-450: The New Kenya Law Reports covering the period between and including the years 1976 to 1980 were published by the East African Publishing House . These reports included the decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal of Kenya and were compiled by the Late Hon Mr Justice S. K. Sachdeva and were edited by Mr Paul H Niekirk and the Hon Mr Justice Richard Kuloba, a judge of the High Court of Kenya . The publication of these reports ceased when

7140-463: The Privy Council. They covered only those appeals filed from the territories. The East Africa Law Reports (cited as E.A.) were introduced in 1957 and were published in nineteen consecutive volumes until 1975. These reports covered decisions of the Court of Appeal for East Africa and the superior courts of the constituent territories, namely, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Aden, Seychelles and Somaliland. They were published under an editorial board consisting of

7259-406: The Supreme Court of California or depublished by that court, the conflict will simply persist until the high court reaches the issue in a future case. Each court of appeal is led by an administrative presiding justice (APJ). In courts of appeal with divisions, the Chief Justice of California may designate the presiding justice of one division as the APJ, while in courts of appeal without divisions,

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7378-423: The Supreme Court, while the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Districts at their founding all initially leased space in existing office buildings. Law report Law reports or reporters are series of books that contain judicial opinions from a selection of case law decided by courts . When a particular judicial opinion is referenced, the law report series in which the opinion is printed will determine

7497-412: The Supreme Court. Unlike the federal courts of appeals , the state Courts of Appeal have no provision allowing rehearing of cases en banc by all justices of a district (or a division in the case of the Fourth District). If a conflict becomes evident between published opinions of different panels or divisions of the same district, and the newer opinion creating the conflict is not immediately appealed to

7616-428: The Third District is one of the first three appellate districts created in 1904 and is located in Sacramento . Its jurisdiction is over the following counties: Alpine , Amador , Butte , Calaveras , Colusa , El Dorado , Glenn , Lassen , Modoc , Mono , Nevada , Placer , Plumas , Sacramento , San Joaquin , Shasta , Sierra , Siskiyou , Sutter , Tehama , Trinity , Yolo , and Yuba . It has 11 justices and

7735-518: The Web (versus the standard volume and page number used for print law reports). Furthermore, turning away from the traditional "official-commercial" print report model raises questions about the accuracy, authority, and reliability of case law found on the Web. The answer to these questions will be determined, in large part, through changing government information policies , and by the degree of influence exerted by commercial database providers on global legal information markets . Reports usually come in

7854-445: The Web expand access to the law beyond the specialized law library collections used primarily by lawyers and judges . The general public can more readily find court opinions online, whether posted on Web-accessible databases (such as the Hong Kong Judiciary public access site, above), or through general Web search engines . Questions remain, however, on the need for a uniform and practical citation format for cases posted on

7973-532: The appeal is without merit). Such procedure is not mandated for civil cases, but for certain types of civil cases where a liberty interest is implicated, the Courts of Appeal may, but are not required to, follow a similar procedure. Most Court of Appeal opinions are not published and have no precedential value; the opinions that are published are included in the official reporter, California Appellate Reports . In addition, West Publishing traditionally included Court of Appeal opinions in its unofficial reporter,

8092-449: The appellate divisions hear appeals from decisions of other superior court judges (or commissioners, or judges pro tem ) who heard and decided such minor cases. Unlike appellate divisions in other states (such as the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division ), the appellate divisions of the superior courts are not considered to be separate courts. Like the vast majority of U.S. state trial courts, most superior court decisions involve

8211-400: The awkward position of frequently ruling on lawsuits involving the very county governments responsible for maintaining their courthouses and providing their staff. Counties were allowed to collect trial court fees, fines, and forfeitures to help fund trial court operations, but those sources of funds were not sufficient. The enacting of Proposition 13 by the state electorate in 1978 became

8330-404: The books themselves. In Commonwealth English , these are described by the plural term law reports , the title that usually appears on the covers of the periodical parts and the individual volumes. In common law countries, court opinions are legally binding under the rule of stare decisis ( precedent ). That rule requires a court to apply a legal principle that was set forth earlier by

8449-405: The court's judgments after they have been handed down, together with the ICLR summary (or "headnote"). In England and Wales , beginning with the reports of cases contained in the Year Books ( Edward II to Henry VIII ) there are various sets of reports of cases decided in the higher English courts down to the present time. Until the nineteenth century, both the quality of early reports, and

8568-425: The creation of a Fourth District that would sit at locations closer to them. Three state senators from San Diego, Fresno , and San Bernardino orchestrated the creation of the Fourth District in 1929. As a compromise, the court was created as a " circuit-riding " court that would sit each year in all three of those cities: Fresno (January-April), San Diego (May-August), and San Bernardino (September-December). In 1961,

8687-707: The decisions of the Court of Appeal of Kenya selected over that period. Law reports relating to special topics have also been published. Ten volumes of the Court of Review Law Reports covering the period 1953 to 1962 and including the decisions on customary law by the African Court of Review were published by the Government Printer. There was no editorial board and it is not known who the compilers of these reports were. Their apocryphal origin notwithstanding, they were commonly cited by legal practitioners and scholars. In 1994,

8806-445: The decisions of the Supreme Court of California . Notably, all published California appellate decisions are binding on all trial courts. This is distinct from the practice in the federal courts and in other state court systems in which trial courts are bound only by the appellate decisions from the particular circuit in which it sits, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States or the state supreme court . In contrast, "there

8925-486: The discretion of each superior court's presiding judge in response to changing caseloads (that is, regardless of whether the division is colloquially called "traffic court" or "family court", all orders are issued by judges of the superior court). In contrast, inferior courts were creatures of statute and thus were slightly more difficult to rearrange. Judges stationed at rural superior courts too small to set up specialized divisions must be generalists who can handle everything;

9044-476: The extent to which the judge explained the facts of the case and his judgment, are highly variable, and the weight of the precedent may depend on the reputations of both the judge and the reporter. Such reports are now largely of academic interest, having been overtaken by statutes and later developments, but binding precedents can still be found, often most cogently expressed. In 1865, the nonprofit Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR) for England and Wales

9163-400: The form of sturdy hardcover books with most of the design elements on the spine (the part that a lawyer would be most interested in when searching for a case). The volume number is usually printed in large type to make it easy to spot. Gold leaf is traditionally used on the spine for the name of the report and for some decorative lines and bars. In lawyer portraits and advertisements ,

9282-417: The high court on writ of certiorari to one of the Courts of Appeal after the state supreme court had denied review. Many Court of Appeal opinions have become nationally prominent in their own right, such as the 1959 opinion that carved out the first judge-made exception to the at-will employment doctrine, the 1980 opinion that authorized a cause of action for wrongful life , and the 1984 opinion that created

9401-609: The issue for the entire state, although a superior court confronted with such a conflict will normally follow the view of its own Court of Appeal (if it has already taken a side on the issue). It is customary in federal courts and other state courts to indicate in case citations the particular circuit or district of an intermediate appellate court that issued the decision cited. But because the decisions of all six California appellate districts are equally binding upon all trial courts, district numbers are traditionally omitted in California citation style unless an actual interdistrict conflict

9520-580: The judge merely signing a proposed order drafted by one side or the other. Thus, superior court decisions are not normally reported either in reporters or legal databases. However, appellate divisions of the superior courts do sometimes certify opinions for publication. Such opinions are published in California Appellate Reports Supplement , which is included in the regular volumes of the California Appellate Reports ,

9639-489: The largest law libraries maintain a full hard copy set in their on-site collections. Some government agencies use (and require attorneys and agents practicing before them to cite to) certain unofficial reporters that specialize in the types of cases likely to be material to matters before the agency. For example, for both patent and trademark practice, the United States Patent and Trademark Office requires citation to

9758-753: The largest population of any county in the United States , it also has the largest superior court. It is also the largest single unit trial court in the United States. The Los Angeles County Superior Court is organized into dozens of highly specialized departments, dealing with everything from moving violations to mental health . It handles over 2.5 million legal matters each year, of which about 4,000 terminate in jury trials; this works out to about 4,300 matters per judge. Its 429 judges are assisted by 140 commissioners and 14 referees. In contrast, many of California's smallest counties, like Alpine , Del Norte, Inyo, Lake, Lassen, Mono, and Trinity, typically have only two superior court judges each, who are usually assisted by

9877-462: The law reporter's contribution. Thus, law students are warned that the headnote is not part of the decision rendered, since headnotes occasionally contain misinterpretations of the law, and are not part of the official judgment. (In the United States, however, the headnote, also called the syllabus, is sometimes written by the court itself, which fact is stated.) The development of the Internet created

9996-645: The more gradual reform process which ultimately prevailed. In 1994, the state electorate approved Proposition 191, which amended the state constitution to eliminate the remaining justice courts and force them to consolidate with the municipal courts. In 1998, the electorate approved Proposition 220, which amended the state constitution to authorize trial court judges in each county to decide whether or not to retain municipal courts. Within two months, by December 31, 1998, judges in 50 of California's 58 counties had voted for consolidation of municipal courts with superior courts. The last county to achieve trial court unification

10115-480: The nomination, which enables the nominee to be sworn in and begin serving immediately. All nominees must have been members of the State Bar of California for at least 10 years preceding their nomination. Typical nominees include experienced attorneys in private practice, current superior court judges, and current federal district judges. Some nominees have taught as adjunct professors or lecturers in law schools, but tenured professors are extremely rare. Another path to

10234-468: The number of types of inferior courts to two: municipal courts and justice of the peace courts, which were renamed "justice courts". This dropped the total number of courts in California to less than 400. To solve the problem of inferior courts which overlapped one another, all county boards of supervisors were required to divide their counties into judicial districts. Each district would be served by only one inferior court of limited jurisdiction underneath

10353-462: The official opinions, so lawyers and law journals must cite the unofficial report until the case comes out in the official report. But once a court opinion is officially published, case citation rules usually require a person to cite to the official reports. A good printed law report in traditional form usually contains the following items: It is only the last item that is authoritative. The others, although useful for its understanding, are only

10472-400: The official regulator of the enrolled lawyers of the country; the Bangladesh Bar Council. Various others for example, Bangladesh Law Chronicles, Bangladesh Legal Times, Lawyers and Jurists, Counsel Law Reports, Legal Circle Law Reports, Bangladesh Legal Times, BCR, ADC are also in operation. The decisions of the lower judiciary are not reported in any law report. The Supreme Court Reports (SCR)

10591-491: The official reporter of the Courts of Appeal. Proposition 220 of 1998 created the Appellate Division of the Superior Court, which replaced the previous Appellate Department but retained the same jurisdictional authority. Every California court may make local rules for its own government and the government of its officers as long as these local rules are not inconsistent with law or with the rules adopted and prescribed by

10710-480: The opportunity for courts to publish their decisions on Web sites . This is a relatively low cost publication method compared to paper and makes court decisions more easily available to the public (particularly important in common law countries where court decisions are major sources of law ). Because a court can post a decision on a Web site as soon as it is rendered, the need for a quickly printed case in an unofficial, commercial report becomes less crucial. However,

10829-472: The peace courts of limited jurisdiction. Notably, the superior courts did not always enjoy the unified jurisdiction that they possess now. The 1879 state constitution authorized the state legislature to establish inferior courts at its discretion in any city, town, or city and county, with powers, duties, and terms to be fixed by statute. By the mid-20th century, California had as many as six, seven, or eight types of inferior courts of limited jurisdiction under

10948-421: The period covering 1934 to 1956 which saw the birth of the famous Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa Law Reports (E.A.L.R). These reports comprised twenty-three volumes altogether which were also compiled by puisne judges and magistrates, a Registrar of the High Court and a Registrar of the Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa . These volumes reported the decisions of the then Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa and of

11067-676: The presiding justice is also the APJ. As the title implies, the APJ is responsible for managing the court's personnel, operations, caseload, budget, and facilities. The California Court of Appeal for the First District is one of the first three appellate districts created in 1904 and is located in San Francisco . Its jurisdiction is over the following counties: Alameda , Contra Costa , Del Norte , Humboldt , Lake , Marin , Mendocino , Napa , San Francisco , San Mateo , Solano , and Sonoma . It

11186-532: The publishers of unofficial reports to maintain a competitive advantage over the official ones, unofficial reports usually provide helpful research aids (e.g., summaries, indexes), like the editorial enhancements used in the West American Digest System . Some commercial publishers also provide court opinions in searchable online databases that are part of larger fee-based, online legal research systems, such as Westlaw , Lexis-Nexis or Justis. Unofficially published court opinions are also often published before

11305-499: The publishing house folded them up ostensibly on account of lack of funds. Later, two volumes of what were known as the Kenya Appeal Reports were published for the period 1982–1992 by Butterworths, a private entity, under the editorship of The Hon Chief Justice A.R.W. Hancox (hence the pseudonym "Hancox Reports") who had the assistance of an editorial board of seven persons. These reports, as their name suggested, included only

11424-461: The right to Cumis counsel . The California Constitution originally made the Supreme Court the only appellate court for the whole state. As the state's population skyrocketed during the 19th century, the Supreme Court was expanded from three to seven justices, and then the Court began hearing the majority of appeals in three-justice panels. The Court became so overloaded that it frequently issued summary dispositions in minor cases, meaning that it

11543-455: The rows of books visible behind the lawyer are usually reports. Each province in Canada has an official reporter series that publishes superior court and appellate court decisions of the respective province. The federal courts, such as the Federal Court , Federal Court of Appeal , and Tax Court , each have their own reporter series. The Supreme Court of Canada has its own Reporter series,

11662-438: The same time as the general gubernatorial election, in which the sole question is whether to retain the justice for another 12 years. If a majority votes "no," the seat becomes vacant and may be filled by the Governor. While Supreme Court justices are voted on by the entire state, Court of Appeal justices are voted on only by the residents of their districts. Like all other California judges, Court of Appeal justices are bound by

11781-630: The sections governing the state judiciary. This left Florida as the sole state in the United States with " District Courts of Appeal ." Since then, each of the Courts of Appeal has been named officially as "the Court of Appeal of the State of California" for a particular numbered appellate district. A serious flaw in the 1904 constitutional amendment is that it authorized the Legislature to create new appellate districts and to add divisions of three justices to existing appellate districts, but it did not authorize

11900-729: The state budget. Next came the Trial Court Employment Protection and Governance Act of 2000 to separate trial court employees from county governments, followed by the Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002 to transfer courthouses from the county governments to the state government. The first courthouse transfer, in Riverside County, took place in October 2004. On December 29, 2009, the Administrative Office of

12019-530: The state judicial education center provides a special training program for "Cow County Judges". Another peculiarity of California law is that traditionally, the superior courts did not own their own buildings or employ their own staff, and the state government was not required to provide them with such things. Even though the superior courts were clearly part of the judicial branch of the state government, they were actually operated by county governments who were expected to provide buildings, security, and staff for

12138-478: The state or territory. The Australian Law Reports are the largest series of unauthorised reports although there are several others general reports and reports relating to specific areas of the law, e.g. the Australian Torts Reports publish decisions from any state or federal court relating to tort law . The NSW Law Reports are published by the Council of Law Reporting for New South Wales and cover

12257-553: The structure of the state's inferior courts. The council's 1948 study found: "There are six separate and distinct types of inferior courts, totaling 767 in number, created and governed under varied constitutional, statutory, and charter provisions." The council found there was much "multiplicity and duplication" between the superior courts and the various types of inferior courts, resulting in "conflict and uncertainty in jurisdiction". Even worse, most inferior courts were not staffed by full-time professional judges; they were presided over on

12376-503: The superior court of Mendocino County was bound by the county board of supervisors' designation of unpaid furlough days for all county employees, including those who worked for the superior court. The California State Legislature attempted to fix these issues by first enacting the Lockyer-Isenberg Trial Court Funding Act of 1997 to begin the process of transitioning the superior courts from county budgets to

12495-426: The superior court would have decided differently if writing on a fresh slate. However, another Court of Appeal division or district may rule differently on that point of law after a litigant seeks relief from an adverse trial court ruling that faithfully applied existing precedent. In that instance, all superior courts are free to pick and choose which precedent they wish to follow until the state supreme court settles

12614-437: The superior court. Districts with populations more than 40,000 would be served by municipal courts, and districts with lesser populations would be served by justice courts. Municipal court jurisdiction was limited to civil cases where the amount in controversy was $ 2,000 or less and criminal misdemeanors, while justice court jurisdiction was limited to civil cases involving $ 500 or less and so-called "low grade misdemeanors". For

12733-448: The superior courts must hear relatively minor cases that previously would have been heard in such inferior courts, such as infractions , misdemeanors , "limited civil" actions (actions where the amount in controversy is below $ 35,000), and " small claims " actions. The superior courts have appellate divisions (superior court judges sitting as appellate judges) which were previously responsible for hearing appeals from inferior courts. Now,

12852-402: The superior courts out of their own local budgets. At the same time, courthouse construction and maintenance were often overlooked among the numerous mandatory responsibilities placed upon counties by California law. Even worse, because so many of the responsibilities delegated to county governments were of a nature which people were likely to sue over, this arrangement put superior court judges in

12971-426: The superior courts, depending upon how they were counted. There were two types of municipal courts (one of which was called "police court"), two types of police courts (not to be confused with the "police court" which was a kind of municipal court), city justices' courts, city courts, and Class A and Class B judicial township justices' courts. In 1947, the state legislature directed the state judicial council to study

13090-413: The three-justice panel serves as the acting presiding justice on the case. The First, Second, and Third Districts each have one big courtroom at their main courthouses which they share with the Supreme Court of California. Therefore, on a typical weekday, the courtrooms of those districts will have three Court of Appeal justices seated at an extra-wide bench large enough to accommodate the seven justices of

13209-539: The various provincial High Courts, the Service, Professional and Election Tribunals as well as the superior courts of territories such as Azad Kashmir. PLD is augmented by other books, most notably the "Yearly Law Reports" (YLR), and the "Monthly Law Digest" (MLD). The Supreme Court also has its own law book, the "Supreme Court Monthly Review" (SCMR), which lists more recent cases that the appex court heard. In addition, there are books dealing with specific areas of law, such as

13328-456: The very ease of internet publication has raised new concerns about the ease with which internet-published decisions can be modified after publication, creating uncertainty about the validity of internet opinions. Decisions of courts from all over the world can now be found through the WorldLII Web site, and the sites of its member organizations. These projects have been strongly encouraged by

13447-466: The words "or more", the Legislature expanded the existing divisions of the First and Second Districts from three to four justices each, but chose to expand the other appellate districts by adding more justices one by one, rather than more divisions. Originally, after appointment by the Governor incumbents ran in potentially contested head-to-head elections. However, after a particularly bitter contest in 1932,

13566-752: Was Kern County, where the state's last four municipal court judges were sworn in by Chief Justice Ronald M. George as superior court judges on February 8, 2001. Therefore, at present, the superior courts are actually not "superior" to any inferior courts within the judicial branch. They are still superior to certain types of administrative hearings within the executive branch; dissatisfied litigants can appeal to superior courts through administrative mandamus. Many of California's larger superior courts have specialized divisions for different types of cases like criminal, civil, traffic, small claims, probate, family, juvenile, and complex litigation, but these divisions are simply administrative assignments that can be rearranged at

13685-581: Was founded, and it has gradually become the dominant publisher of reports in the UK . It has compiled most of the best available copies of pre-1866 cases into the English Reports . Post-1865 cases are contained in the ICLR's own Law Reports . Even today, the UK government does not publish an official report, but its courts have promulgated rules stating that the ICLR reports must be cited when available. Historical practice, which may still apply where no other report

13804-434: Was fragmented into "58 superior courts, 75 municipal courts, and 244 justice courts, of which 74 percent were single-judge courts". Starting in the 1970s, California began to slowly phase out the use of justice courts (in which non-lawyers were authorized by statute to preside as judges) after a landmark 1974 decision in which the Supreme Court of California unanimously held that it was a violation of due process to allow

13923-410: Was merely saying "affirmed" or "reversed" without saying why. The state's second Constitution, enacted in 1879, halted that practice by expressly requiring the Court to issue every dispositive decision in writing "with reasons stated." In 1889, the Legislature authorized the Supreme Court to appoint five commissioners to help with its work. Despite implementing all these measures, the Supreme Court

14042-694: Was no longer able to keep up with the state's rapidly growing appellate caseload by the end of the 19th century. Accordingly, in 1903, the Legislature proposed a constitutional amendment to create what were then called the District Courts of Appeal. On November 8, 1904, the electorate adopted the amendment. The District Courts of Appeal originally consisted of three appellate districts, headquartered in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, with three justices each. These first nine justices were appointed by

14161-422: Was outweighed by the benefits of continuing to use a familiar name, not having to spend money on changing existing superior court signs and letterhead, and not having to amend over 3,000 references to the superior court in 1,600 statutes. SCA 3 passed the state senate but failed to pass the state assembly; it remains historically important, however, because it laid the groundwork and created political momentum towards

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