How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court

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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.

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Reentry Legal Clinic
How to read records from the Los
Angeles Superior Court
Learn to decipher the case printout from LA
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.
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
© 2014 reentrylegalclinic.dozuki.com Page 1 of 14
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 fee-
waiver 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.)
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
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Step 2
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
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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***.
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
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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.
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
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Step 3

How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
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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.
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
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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.
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
© 2014 reentrylegalclinic.dozuki.com Page 8 of 14
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.
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
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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
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
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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!
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
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This document was last generated on 2014-09-17 11:14:28 PM.
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.
How to read records from the Los Angeles Superior Court
© 2014 reentrylegalclinic.dozuki.com Page 14 of 14

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