Judicial Workload Assessment

The California Judicial Workload Assessment Fact Sheet

Review of Statewide Judicial Needs (August 2001)
Summary of the judicial workload standards developed from the California Judicial Needs Assessment Project used to conduct a statewide assessment of statewide judicial needs.

Statewide Assessment of Judicial Needs (October 2001) Results of the statewide assessment of judicial needs, including a list of recommended new judgeships and plans for obtaining additional judgeships needed statewide, based on judicial workload standards.

Update of Judicial Needs Study (August 2004) Proposal updating the October 2001 three-year plan seeking 150 new judgeships.

• October 2008: The Judicial Council approved the need for the Legislature to create the remaining 50 judgeships identified in the 2007 update to the workload study; approved a new list of 100 additional judges that are needed to meet the demands of continued workload growth in the trial courts, and; approved a mandated study to the Legislature reporting on the factually determined need for new judgeships in each superior court.

• December 2007: approved the allocation methodology for converting eleven Subordinate Judicial Officer positions in FY 2007-2008 and 146 SJO positions eligible for conversion in subsequent years.

• October 2007 : approved seven vacant Subordinate Judicial Officer positions for conversion to judgeships based on the recommendations contained in this report.

• February 2007 : adopted the criteria for approving trial court requests for changes in the number of authorized Subordinate Judicial Officer positions (SJO).

• February 2007 : approved the updated results of the statewide assessment of judicial needs. The 50 judgeships created by the Legislature in AB 159 were allocated to the trial courts on the basis of the recommendations contained in this report.

• August 2004 : approved the updated results of the statewide assessment of judicial needs based on more-recent filings data and a minor modification in the assessment methodology. The 50 judgeships created by the Legislature in SB 56 were allocated to the trial courts on the basis of the recommendations contained in this report. SB 56 also adopted the Judicial Workload Assessment methodology approved by the Judicial Council in this report.
• October 2001 : approved the results of the statewide assessment of judicial needs including the ranked list of 150 recommended new judgeships.

• August 2001 : adopted a set of judicial workload standards that can be used to assess the statewide need for additional judges.

California's Statewide Judicial Need (PDF)
Assessing Judicial Workload in the Trial Courts from 2004 to 2007. This report was prepared as part of a presentation to the Judicial Council of California by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) Office of Court Research on February 23, 2007.

Resource Allocation Study (RAS)

The Resource Allocation Study (RAS) established a methodology for measuring court workload. In the last three fiscal years, the RAS methodology has been used to augment the baseline budgets of courts with the most severe resource needs.

Fact Sheet: Resource Allocation Study

Contact: Dag MacLeod, Office of Court Research, dag.macleod@jud.ca.gov
Ron Pi, Office of Court Research, ron.pi@jud.ca.gov