CA Court Structure Flashcards
CA Court Structure
3 tiers:
Supreme Court
Courts of Appeal
Trial Courts
Supreme Court of California (Structure/Authority/Schedule/Jurisdiction/Location)
1 chief justice, 6 associate justice, each nominated by governor
State’s highest court
Decisions binding on all CA courts
Conducts regular sessions in LA, SF, and Sacramento
Original Jurisdiction
Proceedings for extraordinary relief in the nature of:
Mandamus
Certiorari
Prohibition
Habeas Corpus
Also has Judicial Review in:
Any decision by the CA Courts of Appeal
and
All cases in which the death penalty has been assessed
Headquartered in San Francisco
All filings for the entire state, including petitions for review, writs, and legal briefs, are made at this location
Mandamus
An order requiring another court to take action in a certain case
Certiorari
Order granting review of another court’s act
Prohibition
Order prohibiting another court from taking a specific action
Habeas Corpus
Cases in which a person is seeking release from custody
Judicial Review (CA Supreme Court)
CA Supreme Court has the authority to review:
Decisions of the state Courts of Appeal
All Case in which a judgement of death has been pronounced by the trial court
Court selects specific issues for review, or may decide all the issues in a case
CA Courts of Appeal (Position in court Structure/Number of districts/number of divisions/number of justices)
Intermediate courts of review in California
6 Districts, each with at least 1 division
Total of 19 divisions and 106 justices
1st District Court of Appeal (Structure/Location)
San Francisco
5 divisions
Serving 12 counties
Alameda, contra costa, del norte, Humboldt, lake, marin, Mendocino, napa, san Francisco, san mateo, solano, and Sonoma
20 justices
2nd District (Structure/Location)
8 divisions
Serving 4 counties
Los angeles, ventura, santa Barbara, san luis obispo
32 justices
3rd District (Structure/Location)
Sacramento
1 division
23 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, yuba
11 justices
4th district (Structure/Location)
San diego, riverside, santa ana
3 divisions
6 counties
Imperial, inyo, orange, riverside, san Bernardino, san diego
25 justices
5th District (Structure/Location)
Fresno
1 division
10 justices
9 counties
Fresno, kern, kings, madera, mariposa, merced, Stanislaus, Tulare, and tuolumne
6th District (Structure/Location)
San Jose
1 division
7 justices
4 counties
Santa clara, san benito, santa cruz, monterey
Superior Court (Function/How Many/Jurisdiction/Divisions within superior court)
The trial courts in each county in California
58 trial courts in CA, one for each county
Have jurisdiction over all cases civil and criminal, except those specifically reserved to the Supreme Court or the Courts of Appeal, or other trial courts
In CA, the superior court is divided into three divisions:
1) General jurisdiction; 2) Limited Civil; 3) Small Claims
Cases in which Superior Court has Jurisdiction
General jurisdiction
Limited Civil Cases
Small Claims
Limited Civil Cases: Superior Court
Except as otherwise provided by statute, the superior court has original jurisdictions in a limited civil case. (Code Civ. Proc., § 85.)
Limited civil case is one where the amount in controversy is $25,000 or less
Small claims: Superior Court
In each superior court there shall be a small claims division (Code Civ. Proc., §§ 116.210 through 116.270.)
Generally claims limited to $5,000
An individual may claim up to $10,000 (a few exceptions to this rule can be found in the Code of Civil Procedure)
You can file as many claims as you want in given year so long as none of those claims are greater the $2,500
You can only file a maximum of two claims of over $2,500 in a given year
Collection agencies cannot sue in small claims court for debts they assigned
In small claims court, parties may not be represented by counsel
No jury trials
Only defendant has the right to appeal
However plaintiff may appeal claim of defendant
Federal Court Structure
US. Supreme Court
U.S. Courts of Appeal
U.S. district courts
U.S. Supreme Court
Final court/level of appeal in the U.S.
Highest Court in the U.S.A.
1 court
U.S. Courts of Appeal
13-circuit court
CA=9th District
U.S. district Courts
The general trial courts (criminal and civil) in the federal court system
4 Districts in CA: Northern, Southern, Central, Eastern
Pleading Format (Sides of page/size of paper))
Only one side of each page may be used
All papers filed must be 8.5” x 11” and on white or unbleached standard quality paper
Pleading Format Font
Size must not be smaller than 12 points
Courier, times new roman, or arial
Blue/black
Pleading Format Margins
Left margin be at least 1” from left edge
Right margin at least .5” from right edge
Pleading Format Line Spacing (General/Real Property/Footnotes and quotes)
Page must be one and one-half spaced or double-spaced and numbered consecutively
Descriptions of real property may be single-spaced
Footnotes and quotes may be single-spaced
Pleading Format Page Numbers (Pagination/table of contents and table of authorities/roman numerals/consequences of misnumbered documents)
Each page must be numbered consecutively at the bottom, unless rules for the type of doc dictate otherwise
Page numbvering must begin with the first page (caption page)
Only Arabic numerals
Number can be suppressed and need not appear on the first page
Do not number table of contents, tables of authorities with roman numerals
Roman numerals outlawed in part bc they are difficult to enter when searching PDF
Doc may be rejected if pages are numbered incorrectly
Pleading Format Footer
Except for exhibits, each paper filed with the court must bear a footer in the bottom margin of each page, placed below the page number and divided from the rest of the doc page by a printed line
Footer must contain title of paper or some clear/concise abbreviation
Font size of the title of the paper in the footer must be at least 10-point font
Pleading Format Caption Page (left of center)
Attorney name(s) and State Bar number
Office address
Telephone number and fax number
Email address: (Does not consent to service by email unless otherwise provided by law)
Who is represented
On left side, Below title of court, put title of case: Plaintiff v defendant
On initial complaint or cross-complaint, the name of each party must commence on a separate line
Subsequent pleading/paper can use short title of the case: 1) Stating the name of the first party of each side; 2) Stating that a cross-action or actions are involved
Pleading Format Caption Page: Right-of-center (General/If multiple parties/limited civil case)
To the right of the center of page:
Blank Space to be left b/w lines 1-7, for clerk to stamp doc
Case number goes to the right of and opposite title of case
Below case number, nature of paper
If multiple parties, any answer, response, or opposition must specifically identify the moving party and the complaint, motion, or other matter being answered or opposed
In the caption of every pleading and every other paper filed in a limited civil case, the words “limited civil case” as required by code of civil procedure section 422.30(b)
Pleading Format Caption Page (title of Court/e-filing/e-exhibits/text in e-format/form of electronic submission/doc conversion/scanning specs))
Format defined by Cal. Rules of court, rule 2.111
Title of the court on or directly below line 8
Some courts have special rules for e-filing, you must always check local rules:
Electronic exhibits must be bookmarked
Text must be searchable
Submitted as pdf(s)
Doc should be converted directly to pdf from word/wordperfect if possible
Make sure to scan for metadata before filing
If you have to scan docs, scan at least 300 dpi
Judicial Council of California (What is it/Functions/forms)
Policymaking body of the CA courts
One of the JC’s most well-known functions if the promulgation of a huge number of standard court forms for use in CA judicial proceedings
Forms are updated throughout the year
Make sure not to use old versions
Forms are usually fill in the blank
https://www.courts.ca.gov/forms.htm
Judicial Council Forms (How to tell if mandatory/mandatory forms/optional forms)
To find out, check lower lefthand corner of form
Mandatory: Summons, civil case cover sheet, request for entry of default, civil cubpoena
Optional: Proof of Service by Mail, answer, request for a0dmission
Judicial Council Website
Free
Cannot save unless you have Adobe Acrobat (not just Adobe reader)
No control over formatting, field entry, text placement
Judicial Council commercial software
Paid
Legal Solutions, hotDocs, SmartLaser
Much more time efficient
Can save work, organize by client name, will fill in known fields automatically
Can change font size/type, add fields where needed, create templates
Law Libraries
Law libraries becoming obsolete with the rise of online research, but firms sometimes still use them
Updating Law Books (How often are they updated/non-updated books/instructions/responsibility of assistant/pocket parts)
Generally, all books in a law library will be updated once/twice a year
Depends on the changes to the law and the type of book
Book should not be used as a reference if it has not been updated
Update will include instructions and the new insert pages
It will be your responsibility to read through the instructions and carefully discard the old pages and insert the new pages
Some updates are called “pocket parts” and are designed to insert in a special pocket at the back of the book
Primary Sources (4 things)
Written constitutions
Codified statutes (codes):
Legislative bills which have been signed into law
Published judicial decisions (case law):
Secondary Sources
Any commentary on the law that’s not written by court, legislature, or administrative agency
Such sources are never controlling, and at best can be persuasive
Digests
Treatises
Restatements of law
Legal periodicals
Dictionaries
Ninth Circuit
U.S. Federal Court district in which California is located, covers 15 federal judicial districts, including the four such districts that comprise California
Pleading Format Line numbers (Placement/alignment/numbering)
Must be placed at the left margin and separated from the text by a vertical column of space at least 1/5 inch wide or a single/double vertical line
Each line number must be aligned with a line of type, or the line numbers must be evenly spaced vertically on the page
Line numbers must be consecutively numbered, beginning with one (1) on each page
When Does CA Supreme Court hear oral arguments in SF/LA/SAC
Oral argument is heard in LA in April, June and December
Oral args heard in Sacramento in February and November
In san Francisco oral args are heard January, march, may, September, and October
CA Courts of Appeal (Primary role/basis for decision/judges/published verdicts)
Primary role is to hear appeals from cases in the superior court, not in order to retry the case but in order to determine if legal errors were made
Cases decided by three-judge panel
Their decisions, called opinions, are published in the California Appellate Reports, jf those opinions meet certain criteria for publication
Each opinion, whether published or not, is public record and appears on court website as issued
Courts of Appeal (Original Jurisdiction/Appellate Jurisdiction/Who must the Appeals court hear from/how cases are decided))
Like the CA Supreme Court, the CA Courts of Appeal have original jurisdiction in Habeas corpus, mandamus, certiorari, and prohibition proceedings
Appellate jurisdiction when the trial courts have original jurisdiction
Receive appeals from decisions of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board; the Agricultural Relations Appeals Board; the Public Employment Relations Board
Do not hear testimony or retry cases
Decisions based on the record from the original trial proceeding
