Metropolitan News-Enterprise
Friday, Jan. 26, 2001
Page 1

State court officials in San Francisco and judges in Kings County have slated Feb. 8 as the end of the line for municipal courts in California.

Judges of the Kings County superior and municipal courts voted unanimously to unify, making the largely rural central California county the last in the state to take the step of eliminating municipal courts and merging them into the superior court.

The state Judicial Council is expected to certify the vote results next week, and California's last municipal court will be phased out at a ceremony a week later.

"Trial court unification, which just a short time ago was a formidable goal for our state, is now on the verge of becoming a reality statewide," Chief Justice Ronald George said in a statement.

"I thank and congratulate Kings County and the many men and women around the state who worked so hard to achieve this historic restructuring of our court system," George said. "Trial courts across California responded eagerly to the opportunity afforded them, which has allowed us to reach this point far earlier than expected. As a result, California courts are entering the new century better able to serve and meet the needs of our communities."

Limited Matters

Municipal courts were created in California more than 75 years ago to handle matters too limited for superior court. Over time, they were established in each county and absorbed the functions of what were once separate police courts, traffic courts and justice courts.

By the time of unification, municipal courts handled small claims, lawsuits demanding $50,000 or less, and misdemeanor cases.

As in the case of Monterey County, which unified last month, the Kings County courts were delayed in their merger process by laws that required preclearance by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Preclearance was granted on Dec. 27.

A total of four counties needed preclearance, a process under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 that applies to jurisdictions with a history of voting practices that subjected them to federal examination before changing any voting districts, including municipal court districts.

Over the last two years, unification proceeded for 57 of the state's 58 counties under Proposition 220, the initiative approved by voters in June 1998 that permits each county's trial courts to merge into single superior courts on majority approval of all the county's municipal court judges and all of its superior court judges.

The move was intended to eliminate costly duplication and make the courts more responsive to public needs. It was especially popular with municipal court judges, who were essentially promoted to jobs with higher pay and greater stature.

Legislators declined to put an earlier unification measure on the ballot because of its mandatory nature but approved Proposition 220, also known as Senate Constitutional Amendment Four, in part because it gave judges in each county the choice of whether to unify.

Optional Nature

But the optional nature of the measure appeared to evaporate after passage as the state Judicial Council and Chief Justice Ronald M. George threatened recalcitrant courts with sanctions for failing to move forward.

The council threatened to withhold funding for judge pro tems, a complex litigation program, technological modernization and a host of other programs from courts that failed to "voluntarily" unify. The council also continued to tighten standards for non-optional "coordination" among the courts until coordination became essentially identical to unification.

Judges in some counties, such as Los Angeles, required more than one vote before finally accepting unification. Los Angeles also had to deal with multiple municipal court jurisdictions, meaning a merger of 25 entities instead of just two, as in most counties, and more than 400 judges and commissioners in nearly 50 courthouses around the county.

Kings County judges will likely have an easier time of it. There are a total of eight judges and four commissioners in the county, with three judges sitting permanently at the courthouse in Hanford, the county seat.

There are also courthouses in the smaller cities of Lemoore, Avenal and Corcoran, where a judge sits between one and four days a week, spending the rest of the time in Hanford.

Unification will likely make little outward difference in Kings County, where court signs and letterheads have already changed to indicate a single Kings Superior Court and cross-assignments and coordination already have erased all distinction between the different types of trial court.

The council last year released a report that said unification has brought the promised efficiency and improved service, although it lacked hard data and excluded courts that, like Los Angeles, unified after April 1999.