2017 State of the Court

Our Court exists to preserve and protect rights and to effect fair

resolutions of all disputes through consistent, impartial

and accessible administration of justice.

Superior Court of California County of San Bernardino

State of the Court

October 2017

Superior Court of California, County of San Bernardino

Raymond L. Haight III Presiding Judge

Honorable John P. Vander Feer Assistant Presiding Judge

Nancy CS Eberhardt Court Executive Officer

Court Executive Team Alan Crouse Mary Majich Davis Robert E. Fleshman

Cherie Garofalo Debra K. Meyers Anabel Romero Kimberlie Turner

Julie Van Hook Primary Author of Report

Victorville Courthouse

Table of Contents

San Bernardino Superior Court State of the Court Report | October 2017

Message from the Presiding Judge and Court Executive Officer………………………………….……….1

Restored and Expanded Services…………………………………………………………………………………………3

The Needles Courthouse Reopening………………………………………………………………………..3

Shelter Court……………………………………………………………………………………………………………3

Courtroom Calendars……………………………………………………………………………………………….3

Uniform Operating Hours………………………………………………………………………………………..3

Interpreter Services…………………………………………………………………………………………………4

Self-Help Resource Center……………………………………………………………………………………….4

Express Walk-up Windows……………………………………………………………………………………….4

Children’s Waiting Rooms………………………………………………………………………………………..4

Digital Upgrades, Improvements, Health and Safety Measures……………………………………………5

Odyssey Case Management System Implementation…………………………………………………………..7

Innovation Grants………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..7

Video Remote Proceedings at the Big Bear District………………………………………………….7

Video Conferencing for Children and Family Services………………………………………………7

Customer Relationship Management Portal for Self-Help Litigants………………………….7

San Bernardino Superior Court by the Numbers………………………………………………………………….8

The Work of the Judiciary……………………………………………………………………………………………………9

WAFM, Judicial and Staff Need………………………………………………………………………………………….13

Revenues…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..14

Expenditures……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..15

Strategic Planning……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..16

Services Restored and Expanded, Constraints Still Exist A message from the Presiding Judge, Raymond L. Haight III and Court Executive Officer, Nancy CS Eberhardt The San Bernardino Superior Court serves the largest county in the United States. It has 14 courthouses, as far as 145 miles apart, that spread over 20,000 square miles; serving 2,127,735 residents. When the residents of San Bernardino County cannot settle their disputes alone, they turn to our court. Addressing the needs of millions of litigants and other court users, the court resolves monetary disputes and ensures public safety, all while protecting our constitutional rights. At the start of the last state budget crisis, our court was already ‘doing more, with less.’ The Great Recession caused our court to respond in a two-phased approach, which included court closures and other severe cost saving measures. Nevertheless, our court maintained a strong record of minimal case backlog, and achieved a number of efficiencies. While our court’s budget still presents challenges to provide adequate court services, we have put forth a notable effort to fulfill our commitment to our community. Within the last year, we improved access by expanding and streamlining public hours, restored staffing numbers and opened courtrooms in case types most needed by our community. We provided community outreach through the Court/Clergy Conference, hosted legislative and Judicial Council staff, the Department of Finance, and made countless presentations to community organizations and the County Bar Association. We have restored limited services to the residents of Needles and provided the option to appear remotely by two-way video conferencing; a service that will soon be available to the residents of Big Bear Valley. The Self-Help Resource Center has expanded to Needles and now serves seven locations and holds numerous workshops that help better prepare litigants for trial. And although we have experienced significant challenges during the first implementation phase of the Odyssey case management system, we worked hard and succeeded in improving the system vastly in the past year. While work still needs to be done, many critical functions have been addressed and will continue to be improved with concrete solutions.

State of the Court Report 1

With much to celebrate and share with our court team, community and justice partners, we have highlighted those efforts in this report. You will see information on our accomplishments, challenges, initiatives, strategic plan and the beginnings of caseload management through reports and statistics that will become more robust as we move toward the completion of our new case management system. We hope this report will be a useful tool as you advocate for our court’s needs in the next fiscal year. Thank you for your unfailing support of new ideas, and your passion for excellence as we move forward together in the years to come.

Raymond L. Haight III

Nancy CS Eberhardt Court Executive Officer

Presiding Judge

2

Restored and Expanded Services

The Needles Courthouse Reopening

Restoration of services remains a top priority and was realized by the reopening of the Needles courthouse in July 2017. Once a month, Needles residents can appear remotely by two-way video conferencing with a judge sitting at the Barstow courthouse. This allows residents to appear locally for traffic and infraction arraignments that are held at the Barstow District. For those who prefer to appear in-person or who have small claims and landlord-tenant matters, transportation has been established through the Victorville Valley Transit Authority Route 200, departing each Friday from Needles to Barstow in the morning , and returning to Needles in the evening. This collaborative effort, between the Court and 1 st District Supervisor, Ronald Lovingood, represents the continuing effort to restore services which were once eliminated due to budget cuts. In addition to these services, the public can also make non-cash payments, sign-up for traffic school, request payment extensions and schedule court date appearances in the clerk’s office. Expansion to other case types and hearings will continue in the next year. Shelter Court Courtroom Calendars A stand-alone Complex Civil Litigation Department was created on September 6, 2016, which provides the public with individualized judicial management and expedited resolution on complex issues, as well as creates cost and resource efficiencies for both the parties and the Court. The formation of the Complex Civil Litigation Department follows other recent initiatives to restore access and improve service to our community. In addition, a third probate courtroom was added on September 12, 2016 to handle the significant increase seen in probate filings and the return of Lanterman-Petris-Short (LPS) matters to the department. Hearings and trials are now scheduled sooner because of this new addition. Uniform Operating Hours As of June 5, 2017, all court facilities and weapons screening began opening to the public at 7:30 a.m. These changes reflect the Court’s continuing effort to ensure consistent access to justice throughout the county. In collaboration with the city of Upland and homeless advocates, Shelter Court reopened on June 23, 2017. On the fourth Friday of every month in the city of Upland, Shelter Court helps homeless individuals resolve open misdemeanor cases, settle outstanding fines, restore benefits, and release holds on driver’s licenses.

State of the Court Report 3

Interpreter Services On November 1, 2016, the Court expanded interpreter services to unlawful detainer cases court-wide for all languages. With this expansion, court interpreters are provided in the following case types: criminal, juvenile delinquency, juvenile dependency, traffic, child support, mental health, family law domestic violence protective orders, civil harassment, elder or dependent adult protective orders and unlawful detainers, with no cost to the parties. In addition to the expansion of services, interpreter coverage in Spanish and Vietnamese languages have increased and accommodations for same day requests have improved court-wide in all case types. Self-Help Resource Center

The Self-Help Resource Center now serves: San Bernardino (two locations), Fontana, Victorville, Barstow, Joshua Tree, Needles, and the Rancho Cucamonga Branch of the County Law Library. On a first-come, first-served basis, the public can receive practical legal information on family law, child support, guardianship, landlord-tenant, and small claims at no cost. Self-Help also offers several workshops to court customers throughout the year. These

workshops have received an overwhelming positive response from litigants and courtroom staff, with a noticeable improvement in case preparation and trial readiness for pro-per litigants. From May to September of 2017, 512 litigants attended these workshops throughout the County. Express Walk-up Windows Over the past year, three court locations have opened express walk-up windows allowing court customers to skip the security screening process by never entering the building. The Rancho Cucamonga courthouse opened its first express walk-up window for traffic matters in February of 2017. The Fontana courthouse began using its second express walk-up window in May of 2017, for small claims and unlawful detainers matters. And, in July of 2016, the Barstow courthouse opened two express walk-up windows for traffic and will expand to include small claims and landlord-tenant matters. Children’s Waiting Rooms

On September 6, 2016, the court opened waiting rooms for children at both the Historic Courthouse and San Bernardino Justice Center locations. Children’s Waiting Rooms (CWRs) receive funding from first paper civil filings fees that are already deposited into the Trial Court Trust Fund. These funds support a variety of programs, such as law libraries and the

judges’ retirement fund. The CWRs are open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to noon, and 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for children 2 ½ years old and up to 14 years of age. This free service is limited and provided on a first-come, first-served basis. During its first ten months of operation, the CWRs served over 1,100 children. CWRs will expand to other locations as funding allows.

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Digital Upgrades, Improvements, IMPROVED JUROR WEBSITE

EXPANDED STAFF TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES Employee training has expanded by 15 new courses which focus on leadership, essentials for new supervisors, and case type training for court interpreters and clerk’s office staff, to name a few. 127 courses were provided in total, to over 7,236 participants, equaling 19,191 hours of time dedicated to sharpen and acquire new skills. FACILITY UPGRADES Nearly 50 facility upgrades took place court-wide. These projects included major remodels to accommodate the Court’s expanded services, the installation of retractable security gates and general maintenance court-wide.

BACKGROUND SCREENING PERFORMED IN-HOUSE

The juror website features new and improved capabilities. Those summoned for jury service have the ability to defer jury service up to 90 days, complete their juror questionnaire, elect to receive status updates via phone, email and/or text message, check status, and obtain their juror verification slip on the newly enhanced juror website. To date, 67,538 people logged-in to check their jury status; 5,848 people signed up for notifications; 17,071 people postponed their jury service; and 797 people answered their juror questionnaire online.

INCREASED SBJC PUBLIC PARKING AVAILABILITY Parking availability at the San Bernardino Justice Center has increased by 70% . These additional 195 spaces have no parking time limits and are provided at no cost to the public. The Human Resources Department now performs the finger-printing background process to all conditionally hired candidates, vendors and pro tem judges, Monday through Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This new service is provided during hours that are more convenient than before, which results in quicker start dates.

State of the Court Report 5

Health & Safety Measures

EXPANDED NETWORK CAPACITY In preparation for the expanded case management system, the Court has improved the reliability of our network connectivity by adding a secondary diverse path to decrease outages for the Barstow, Joshua Tree, Needles, SBJC, Juvenile, Fontana, and Victorville sites. The Child Support, locations will be completed by October 2017 and the Rancho Cucamonga courthouse and Vineyard Training Center will be completed by December 2017. GOT FILES? Records Center, and Historic courthouse

FAMILY LAW FORMS ASSISTANT The Family Law Forms Assistant program was introduced at family law workshops and outreach events along with the San Bernardino County, Department of Child Support Services. This online program guides users through a series of questions which in turn are used to complete forms for filing modifications to current custody, visitation, child or spousal support orders. During April, May and June of 2017, the program assisted nearly 300 customers prepare their forms for filing.

ONE-DAY NEW HIRE ORIENTATION New employees will develop a better

understanding of the court with the newly designed one-day orientation. At the end of day one, new employees are welcomed by a judge and continue to participate in an on-going orientation to the court during the first 90 days of employment. During these first 90 days, new employees will observe courtrooms in-session, meet their respective supervising judge, and participate in a variety of observations court-wide.

The Record’s Center fulfilled 40,957 file requests last year, equating to 171 requests per day and imaged 6,071,384 files .

SECURITY SCREENING UPGRADES

Retractable security gates create a physical barrier to deter those who may try to bypass weapons screening in our court lobbies. These safety measures have been installed at the SBJC, Child Support, Historic and Barstow courthouses. By the end of 2017, the Rancho Cucamonga, Fontana, Juvenile Delinquency, and Joshua Tree courthouses will receive the same upgrades, followed by the Victorville courthouse at the end of 2018.

6

Odyssey Case Management Implementation

The court has made progress since going live with the initial implementation of Odyssey Project I (criminal and traffic). This includes progress made in DOJ 1 reporting, the DMV 2 interface, production of reminder (courtesy) notices and Failure to Appear/Failure to Pay notices, along with a range of financial and technical items. While there has been much progress made, there is much left to do and the court continues to work diligently with the vendor to address these issues.

The kickoff of Odyssey Project II (civil, probate, mental health, family, child support, small claims/unlawful detainers) was held on June 9, 2017. The court and vendor representatives gathered to revisit Project I, lessons learned, and discuss the changes in the approach to Project II. These changes include a much more collaborative leadership approach, the establishment of core teams consisting of judicial officers and staff and a court-wide communications plan. Proposed testing, site visits and deployment timelines were also identified as key improvements to Project II’s implementation. A fit analysis is underway and will help to identify the gaps between our current processes and the baseline Odyssey functionalities for each case type. Innovation Grants As part of the Budget Act of 2016, the Legislature appropriated $25 million for a competitive grant program known as the Court Innovations Grant Program. These funds are designated for the establishment and operation of new programs that promote innovations, modernization and efficiency. On March 24, 2017, the court was awarded $710,991, for all three project submissions designed to expand access to our community. These include:  Remote video proceedings for the residents of Big Bear Valley, every second and fourth Friday of the month, for traffic infractions and misdemeanor probation modification matters;

 Video conferencing for parents in remote locations who are unable to attend mediation sessions; and

 An online portal with mobile device capability that allows self-represented litigants 24-hour access to general legal and procedural information, complete and submit forms, communicate with self-help staff, register for workshops, and track the status of their active cases.

1 Department of Justice

2 Department of Motor Vehicle

State of the Court Report 7

San Bernardino Superior Court by the Numbers

Authorized judges………………………………………….………………………………………….71

Authorized commissioners (SJO)..……………………………………………………………..15

Courthouses………………………………………………………………………………………………14 ——————————————————————————————————

Annual Case Filings Summary (FY 15-16)

Civil Unlimited……………………………………………………………………………………..9,990

Civil Limited (excluding Unlawful Detainers)……………………………………….12,378

Unlawful Detainers……………………………………………………………………………..13,023

Small Claims……………………………………………………………………………………….13,669

Felonies………………………………………………………………………………………………14,054

Misdemeanors……………………………………………………………………………………61,919

Infractions………………………………………………………………………………………..150,640

Juvenile Dependency……………………………………………………………………………4,717

Juvenile Delinquency………………………………………………………………..………….3,462

Appellate…………………………………………………………………………………………………310

Mental Health (LPS)…………………………………………………………………..………...1,299

Family Law………………………………………………………………………………………….29,360

Probate…………………………………………………………………………………………..……2,419

Total Filings………………………………………………………………………………………317,240

——————————————————————————————————

Jury Trials…………………………………………………………………………………..….………..473

Juror Summonses……………………………………………………………………………..799,060

Jurors Responses…………………………………………………………………………...…552,440

Average Days Served………………………………………………………………………………7.12

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The Work of the Judiciary The judicial officers of San Bernardino Superior Court serve the largest county by geographical size in the nation, supporting 24,741 residents per judicial officer and hear every case type under California law.

10,200

Civil Unlimited (2011-Present) After three years of decline, civil unlimited filings have increased by 7 percent during the past year.

10,000

9,800

9,600

9,400

9,200

9,000

8,800

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Unlimited Civil

22,000

Civil limited (2011-Present)

20,000

After a 43 percent decline over four years, civil limited filings are starting to increase.

18,000

16,000

14,000

12,000

10,000

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Limited Civil

Unlawful Detainers & Small Claims (2011-Present)

19,000

18,000

17,000

Unlawful detainer filings have decreased by 27 percent since fiscal year 2011-12. Small claims filings are rising after four years of decline.

16,000

15,000

14,000

13,000

FY11-12 FY12-13 FY13-14 FY14-15 FY15-16

Unlawful Detainers

Small Claims

State of the Court Report 9

Felonies (2011-Present)

22,000

20,000

Since its passage in 2014, Proposition 47 continues to play a large role in the decrease of criminal filings. Prior to 2014, felony filings increased by 10 percent. But after 2014, felony filings have decreased rapidly by 32 percent .

18,000

16,000

14,000

12,000

10,000

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Felonies

Misdemeanors (2011-Present) Prior to 2014, misdemeanor filings were on a steady decline. A small increase of less than one percent occurred from 2014 to 2015 with the passage of Proposition 47.

85,000

80,000

75,000

70,000

65,000

60,000

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Misdemeanors

Infractions (2011-Present) Infraction filings are rapidly decreasing and have seen a 42 percent decline over the past five years.

140,000 160,000 180,000 200,000 220,000 240,000 260,000 280,000

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Infractions

10

5,000

Juvenile Dependency (2011-Present) New juvenile dependency cases have increased over 52 percent since 2011.

4,500

4,000

3,500

3,000

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Dependency

Juvenile Delinquency

5,000

(2011-Present)

4,500

Juvenile delinquency filings have decreased by 28 percent.

4,000

3,500

3,000

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Delinquency

Appellate (2011-Present) Appellate division filings declined by 46 percent since fiscal year 2012-13. This decline corresponds

600

550

500

with the decrease seen in limited civil, misdemeanor and infraction filings.

450

400

350

300

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Appellate

State of the Court Report 11

1,500

Mental Health (LPS) (2011-Present)

1,300

The number of mental health cases have increased by 71 percent since 2011.

1,100

900

700

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Mental Health (LPS)

Family Law (2011-Present)

34,000

After five years of declining numbers, family law filings are increasing.

33,000

32,000

31,000

30,000

29,000

28,000

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Family Law

Probate (2011-Present) Probate filings continue to increase by five percent each year since 2013, with the most significance shown in decedent’s estate petitions.

2,450

2,400

2,350

2,300

2,250

2,200

FY 11-12 FY 12-13 FY 13-14 FY 14-15 FY 15-16

Probate

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WAFM, Judicial and Staff Needs

In 2005, the Judicial Council of California (JCC) approved the Resource Allocation Study (RAS) model, which uses workload measures to determine the amount of nonjudicial trial court staff need. In 2013, the JCC approved a new funding model called the Workload-based Allocation and Funding Methodology (WAFM), that uses the RAS model as the basis for its funding. Under WAFM, funding is

$30.00

$25.00

$20.00

New Funding & Historical Reallocation Tiered Rollout

$15.00

Millions

$10.00

$5.00

$0.00

based on a court’s workload and filing counts averaged over a three year period. Using a phased-in approach, WAFM is designed to allocate funding over a five year period. As a result, the court has benefitted from this workload-based funding model (as shown in the graph above). Even though funding has increased, it is still insufficient to support the workload-driven need of our court.

1,116

134.1

1,058

86

Funded Positions

Staff Position Need

Funded Judicial Positions

Judicial Needed

To support the workload of our court, we still need 48.1 judicial positions and an estimated 58 nonjudicial trial court positions per the RAS model.

State of the Court Report 13

Revenues

Local & Other Financing Sources $5,184,602

State Financing Sources $110,771,018

Grants $4,415,893

The court’s fiscal year 2016-17 revenue budget totaled $120.3 million. The State Financing Sources equaled roughly 92 percent of the total revenue budget, which includes funding from the Trial Court Trust Fund, judges’ compensation, court interpreters and MOU reimbursements, to name a few. The FY 2016-17 State Financing Sources totaled $5 million more than the previous fiscal year mainly due to the phased-in approach of WAFM and new operations funding. Local and Other Financing Sources accounted for 4.3 percent of the total revenue budget, and included interest income ($189,886), local fees ($2,008,788), non-fee revenues ($1,718,499), escheatment ($394,305), reimbursement revenues ($759,547), other miscellaneous revenues ($282,463), and the sale of fixed assets ($21,000). Funding designated under Grants accounted for 3.6 percent of the total revenue budget, and funds only certain projects and services.

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Expenditures

AB 1058 (FLF & CSC), $1,005,219

Other Grants & Restricted Funds, $750,182

Juvenile Dependency (CAC), $5,651,029

Language Access, $514,483

Jury Services, $750,555

Transfers to Other Funds, $454,705

Personnel Costs, $95,702,809 *

Major Equipment, $591,177

Information Technology, $2,297,346

Contracted Services, $3,304,863

Facility Operations , $2,093,816

Perimeter Security, $1,442,415

General & Other Expenses, $4,627,746

Telecommunications, $1,185,168

* Includes Personnel Costs funded by allFinancing Sources

The court’s fiscal year 2016-17 expenditures budget totaled $120.3 million. The Personnel Costs are all costs funded by all financing sources and represent roughly 79 percent of the total budgeted expenditures. These funds are allocated to pay for the costs of salaries and benefits provided to regular, limited-term and extra-help employees. The court’s operating expenses accounted for 13 percent of the total budget and included expenses for telecommunications, perimeter security, facility operations, contracted services, information technology, major equipment, grants and other restricted funds. Funding for Juvenile Dependency goes toward court-appointed counsel for minors and AB 1058 funds are designated for family law facilitators and child support commissioners. The Language Access funds provide the public with language resources and will expand within available funding.

State of the Court Report 15

Strategic Planning

Over the span of several months, judges, commissioners and staff met to set a vision and strategic plan for the future of our court. Aligned with the goals of the Judicial Council’s strategic plan, the court strives to create efficient, transparent and innovative services with well-trained, well-qualified employees to provide stable and consistent access to our county.

With four main areas of focus arising out from these discussions, the court envisions:

1. Expanded countywide access to justice 2. Increased state-wide relationships 3. Efficient, functioning and accessible case and data management 4. Well-trained and committed judicial officers and staff

The proposed Strategic Plan encompasses the period of 2018 to 2023, with strategic directives and implementation plans to:

Build Relationships



 Invest in the Court and the Community

Commit to Success



In early fall of 2017, judges, commissioners, staff, community members and the public were invited to review and comment on the proposed Strategic Plan for 2018-2023. The Strategic Plan for 2018-2023 and any comments will be submitted to the Full Bench for consideration at its annual meeting in October, 2017.

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