How To Read Records From The Los Angeles Superior Court

How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
Reentry Legal Clinic

Written By: Joshua Kim
INTRODUCTION
The Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, maintains detailed criminal case information from its many courthouses and makes it available in different formats. The LAeCourtOnline website provides only bare minimum of information, including only the name of the case, case number, charges, and disposition, along with disposition dates. It contains even less information than a DOJ rap sheet, as it's missing sentencing information. Detailed information is available via an in-person request at the court for a printout from the court's Trial Court Information System (TCIS), commonly-referred to as a "case docket." The printout has all the information disclosed on the LAeCourtOnline website plus sentencing and post-sentencing information--pretty much all the information necessary to fill out a dismissal petition. The printout can be difficult to read. Hopefully this how-to helps.
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Step 1 How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
In California, the law contemplates 3 major types of court records: index (Gov't C. 69842); register of actions ( 69845); and case docket. In order to properly fill out a petition for dismissal, an index record is insufficient. You should instead get a copy of register of actions or case docket on the particular case to be dismissed. There are several ways of obtaining a register of actions or case docket from a superior court in Los Angeles County. The most effective way is to walk in to a criminal clerk's office and ask for a printout of case docket under your name and date of birth. If you cannot pay 50 cents per page, ask for a fee waiver. You qualify for a feewaiver if you're receiving Medi-Cal, Food Stamps (CalFresh), SSI, SSP, General Relief, IHSS, CalWORKs, and/or CAPI. (Note that unemployment insurance or Section 8 doesn't count.)
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Step 2
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Case docket printouts from the Los Angeles Superior Court are inch wide and mile deep. They only have information on one case each, but they (are supposed to) have comprehensive information about what the court did in that case from the filing of an initial accusatory pleading to the conclusion of that case. To compare what a DOJ rap sheet would show in comparison, check out Step 2 in the guide on "How to Read a DOJ rap sheet." The image shows the very first page of a case docket from the Los Angeles Superior Court. Red box: The top of the page shows which court the action took place. On this case, it was at the Municipal Court of Central Arraignment Courthouse. You will notice that the name of the court is somewhat abbreviated. Blue box: Here is probably the most important piece of information about this case, the case number. It has been redacted to protect the subject's privacy, but you can see it reads 9CR***.
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Green box: And the name of the defendant. Note that this may not be the defendant's true name. It's just the name that the case was prosecuted under. Note also that this person is DEFENDANT 01. The full case number includes the defendant number, so this case's full number would be 9CR***-01. Orange box: The arresting agency, which is usually the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department), or LASD (Los Angeles Sheriff's Department). Yellow box This is the description of the initial charging document, e.g. misdemeanor complaint, felony information, or indictment. This person was charged with 4 counts. It remains to be seen how many of them she was convicted of.
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Step 3
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A case docket printout from the Los Angeles Superior Court starts off with information about the initial charge. The rest is a series of summary description of each proceeding held in the case, separated by a few blank lines. Each entry subsequent to the initial charge will start off with the date, time, and location of the courtroom where the proceeding took place; the purpose of the proceeding; and the parties in attendance. On July 8, 1999 at 8:30am, in Division 81 of Central Arraignment Courthouse, the case was called for arraignment. An arraignment is the first time a defendant appears before the court, and the defendant pleads guilty, not guilty, no contest, etc. For the purpose of this arraignment proceeding, the judge was Commissioner Kirkland Nyby; the clerk, Martha Rico; the reporter, electronic recording (i.e. tape recorded); and the prosecutor/City Attorney ("CA"), Bryan K. Bowers. CA stands for City Attorney. CP stands for City Prosecutor. DA stands for District Attorney. And DDA stands for Deputy District Attorney. On both images, the blue box shows that each entry--including the initial charge information--always ends with the next scheduled event. Unless something unexpected happens, this should always line up with the first line of the next entry. A common "unexpected event" occurs when the court issues a bench warrant because the defendant doesn't show up for a scheduled hearing. Pay attention to these bench warrants. For a defendant on probation, they can result in a probation violation. Note that probation revocation doesn't automatically result in probation violation.
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Step 4
To fill out a petition for dismissal, we need to extract the following information from the case docket: case number, defendant's name, date of conviction, the court of conviction, prosecuting agency, offense(s) convicted, sentence given, and probation result (if probation was granted). Another way to think about these pieces of information is to categorize them in 3 groups: (1) IDENTIFICATION information, (2) CONVICTION information, and (3) SENTENCING information. IDENTIFICATION information includes: case number and defendant's name. We already covered these. CONVICTION information includes: the date of conviction, the court of conviction, prosecuting agency, and offenses convicted. We will cover these next. Finally, we will cover SENTENCING information, which includes: sentence given and probation result.
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Step 5
For our purpose, conviction occurs when the defendant is found guilty and sentenced. In short, the date of conviction is the date of sentencing. On a Los Angeles case docket printout, the sentencing starts with the words "AS TO COUNT (XX)". In Los Angeles, this usually happens on the same day that the court finds the defendant guilty and enters disposition of "CONVICTED," but conviction and sentencing often occur on different dates elsewhere. The date of conviction, i.e. sentencing, and the court of conviction is found at the beginning of this entry, as you can see. The case was initially called for arraignment on 07/09/1999 in CENTRAL ARRAIGN CTHOUSE. Make sure which attorney prosecuted the case. It's not important who Mr. Bryan K. Bowers is. What's important is that he's a CA, City Attorney. You can turn to the very first page and see which agency effected the arrest in this case. The City Attorney is from the same city. It's a bit more complicated to extract the accurate information as to which offense(s) the person was convicted of. DISPOSITION of each COUNT is easy to see. COUNT (01) is the only one to result in DISPOSITION: CONVICTED, while COUNT (02)-(04) are dismissed. To verify that what offense was alleged in COUNT (01), go back to the first page (the second image). You see that COUNT 01 was 242-243(E) PC MISD. That is, Penal Code (PC) section 242-243(e), charged as a misdemeanor. Watch out for additional counts being added on ("by interlineation") after the initial charge has been filed.
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Step 6
Let's look at sentencing information in more detail. Immediately following "AS TO COUNT (XX)" is the sentence itself. There are three (3) options here, two of which end up in probation. (1) The court does not give out or impose any sentence. So "IMPOSITION OF SENTENCE (is) SUSPENDED," and probation is granted. That's what happened in this case. (2) The court imposes a sentence but suspends its execution--and probation is granted. You will see "SERVE XXX YEARS IN ANY STATE PRISON" and "EXECUTION OF SENTENCE (is) SUSPENDED," if that's the case. (3) Or the court can simply sentence the defendant to a term of incarceration, a fine, or both. In other words, sentence is imposed and executed. Ergo, no probation. You may even see "COURT ORDERS PROBATION DENIED" thrown in for good measure.
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Step 7
To figure out whether the defendant successfully completed all terms and conditions of probation (or the sentence itself), it's obviously necessary to know what those terms and conditions were to begin with. In this case, the court granted SUMMARY PROBATION for A PERIOD OF 024 MONTHS. And the probation included THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS. Three (3) days in county jail. Since this defendant had already spent 3 days or more in county jail waiting for this arraignment hearing, this is time served, i.e. no actual jail time is given. Payment of $77.75 in attorney fees (to the public defender's office). Restitution fine of $100. Note that the court set a hearing date for proof of payment of this restitution fine on 11/5/1999. And other standard terms and conditions, including OBEY ALL LAWS AND FURTHER ORDERS OF THE COURT. There is no record of the defendant's compliance with the above terms and conditions of probation--except that she did not file her proof of restitution payment by the date set by the court. So it went to a collection agency. And, yes, this is a probation violation. More on that next.
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Step 8
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So what is a probation violation? It's the probationer's failure to comply with some term or condition of probation. And the vast majority of them can be identified in one of three (3) ways. The first way to identify a probation violation was covered in the previous step: failure to pay the required fine before the due date. (If no due date is given, it must be paid before the end of the probation period.) Another common probation violation occurs when the probationer commits another criminal offense during the period of probation. Recall that OBEY ALL LAWS is a standard probation condition. Finally, look for this line in the court record: THE COURT FINDS DEFENDANT IN VIOLATION OF PROBATION. To be absolutely clear, revocation of probation alone does not make a probation violation--until the court states on the record it is!
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As you see in the sample image, probation can be revoked, modified, and reinstated without the court ever finding that the probationer was in violation of probation. This isn't a violation.
This document was last generated on 2014-03-05 08:05:50 PM.
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How To Read Records From The Los Angeles Superior Court

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