Overview

California’s court system is the largest in the nation and serves a population of more than 37 million people— about 12 percent of the total U.S. population.

The vast majority of cases in the California courts begin in one of the 58 superior, or trial, courts, which reside in each of the state’s 58 counties. With approximately 500 court buildings throughout the state, these courts hear both civil and criminal cases as well as family, probate, mental health, juvenile, and traffic cases.

The next level of judicial authority resides with the Courts of Appeal. Most cases before the Courts of Appeal involve the review of a superior court decision being contested by a party to the case. The Legislature divided the state geographically into six appellate districts.

The state Supreme Court serves as the highest court in the state and has discretion to review decisions of the Courts of Appeal in order to settle important questions of law and to resolve conflicts among the Courts of Appeal. The court also must review the appeal in any case in which a trial court has imposed a judgment of death.

California Courts at a Glance

Population served: more than 39 million—12 percent of the United States population

• Total trial court system filings: 6.8 million cases in fiscal year 2014–2015
• Total authorized judges in the trial courts: 1,714
• Court levels: Two—trial and appellate
• Trial courts: 58—one in each county
• Court of Appeal districts: 6 in 9 locations
• Highest court: California Supreme Court
• Judicial branch budget is 1.4% of State General Fund

Jury Service

• Jury pay: $15/day starting with second day of service and 34 cents per mile, one way
• Number of Californians summoned to jury service in fiscal year 2013–14: 7,491,051*
• Number of Californians summoned to jury service who completed service in fiscal year 2013–14: 2,639,365*
• Number of Californians sworn in to serve as jurors in fiscal year 2013–14: 133,506*

* Numbers are based on 53 of the 58 (91%) superior courts reporting

Court Interpreters

• Languages and dialects spoken in California—more than 250
• Percentage of Californians that speak a non-English language at home: 44%
• Percentage of Californians with English-language limitations: approximately 19% (more than 7 million)
• Languages certified for court interpreters: American Sign Language and 15 spoken languages—Arabic, Eastern Armenian, Western Armenian, Cantonese, Farsi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese
• Total number of court interpreter service days provided in the California courts from July 2009 to June 2013: More than 1,000,000
• Percent of interpreter services provided in Spanish: 72

Family and Juvenile

• Family: filings for dissolution, legal separation and nullity of marriage: 138,121
• Family: filings for child support, domestic violence and other: 242,039
• Juvenile delinquency filings: 40,726
• Juvenile dependency filings: 44,679

California Supreme Court

• Justices: 1 Chief Justice, 6 Associate Justices
• Filings: 7,868
• 76 written opinions

Courts of Appeal

• Justices: 105 (authorized positions)
• Filings: 20,661
• Dispositions: 22,084

Superior Courts (trial courts)

• 1,714 judges (authorized positions) (assessed need = 1,903)
• Filings: 6,832,710
• Dispositions: 6,342,662

More statistics for current fiscal year may be found in the Court Statistics Report.