Futures Commission Seeks Comment on Proposed Concepts for Court System

January 19, 2016

Futures Commission Seeks Comment on Proposed Concepts for Court System

SAN FRANCISCO—The Commission on the Future of California’s Court System has posted concepts it will explore during its Feb. 8-9 public comment session in San Francisco.

Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye appointed commission members last February and charged them with proposing recommendations for making the court system more efficient and effective. The importance of the commission’s work was underscored in the Governor’s proposed state budget, which was announced earlier this month.

Proposed Concepts
Concepts and goals under consideration for public comment include, but are not limited to: increasing online access in all case types, improving services to juveniles and their families by consolidating dependency and delinquency cases into one unified juvenile court, reducing continuances in criminal cases, ensuring access to the court record for all litigants, adding an intermediate tier for jurisdictional amounts for unlimited civil cases, and ensuring that court labor costs and negotiations are both equitable and efficient.

See the commission’s webpage for the complete list and additional detail on the proposed concepts.

Comment Procedures
Members of the public can request to speak at the comment session or submit written comments either before or after the session. A link to the live audiocast of the public comment session—posted approximately 15 minutes before the session―will be available on the Futures Commission webpage.

For more information, view the comment procedures.

The commission held a similar comment session on Dec. 8 to solicit input on proposed concepts related to judgeships, trial court funding, court-ordered debt, and traffic infractions.

The Futures Commission plans to hold a second public comment session later this year.