Summer vacation schedules, long-term leaves of absence and two judicial vacancies on the San Mateo County Superior Court bench are among the factors behind a lack of available courtrooms for civil and criminal trials in recent months.
Presiding Judge Jonathan Karesh looked to two vacancies on the Superior Court’s bench as the primary reason for the backup of trial scheduling in recent months, which he noted has been exacerbated by long-term leaves of absence taken by two judges who have recently returned to work.
He added summer vacation schedules have also compounded the problem, which Karesh said has had the biggest impact on civil court cases, since criminal trials in which defendants don’t waive their right to a speedy trial by law are prioritized over other trials.
“It’s a struggle to find trial departments, especially over the summer months,” he said. “We were just hurting for judges.”
Karesh said it’s up to Gov. Gavin Newsom to appoint judges to the two vacant spots on the county’s 27-judge bench, and he doesn’t expect the governor to be able to fill those spots until the end of the year. He said Newsom in June made public the eight Regional Judicial Selection Advisory Committees expected to advise the governor on judicial appointments. Karesh is among the attorneys and judges on the Bay Area Committee.
He said officials are still waiting for the 90-day evaluations completed by the State Bar of California’s Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation to begin for the San Mateo County lawyers who apply to become a judge. Once those evaluations are complete, the applications go back to the governor’s office for review, he said.
Because commissioners can hear misdemeanor assignments and help with the traffic and small claims cases, the hiring of a fourth court commissioner earlier this year has helped ease the caseload for judges and free up their schedules to hear trials, noted Karesh. Though he acknowledged that even at full staff, the number of courtrooms in the San Mateo County Superior Court is fairly limited and at times does not keep pace with the number of jury trials ready to start, Karesh didn’t expect the number of judges on the bench to increase any time soon, noting the county will only have as many judges as the state will allocate to it.
Though he acknowledged the court has to comply with the legal requirements of time-not-waived criminal cases, Karesh said he tries to get at least one civil trial out a week when he can. Noting it’s usually about a year into a governor’s term before new judges are appointed, Karesh remained optimistic for improved scheduling in the coming year.
“I think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
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