Accommodations For Persons With Disabilities Using Court Facilities
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and State law require all state and local governmental entities, including the courts, to provide reasonable accommodations for the needs of persons with disabilities. The ADA benefits people who have an interest in court activities, programs and services. In 1996 the Judicial Council of California, the policy-making body for the courts, adopted California Rules of Court, rule 1.100 (former rule 989.3) to implement the ADA in the state court system.
Under the ADA, State laws, and the court rule, a person is entitled to an accommodation if he or she is a person with a disablility. This means the person has a physical or mental impairment that limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such impairment, or is regarded as having such impairment.
It is the individual's responsibility to contact the court to request accommodations that would best suit his or her situation. The individual may request an accommodation by completing the Request for Accommodations by Persons with Disabilities (Judicial Council Form MC-410) or by other means, and provide the request to court staff. If the individual is involved in more than one case, they must submit a separate request (MC-410 form) for each case. The individual should give the court at least five working days notice whenever possible.
Telephone Contacts with the Court. If a person needing an ADA accommodation contacts the court by telephone to request that a matter be scheduled, they must specify during that telephone conversation the accommodation they need. This communication is necessary even if there is an ongoing ADA accommodation granted in their case, as the staff person answering the phone call may not be aware of that ongoing accommodation. This is particularly important in ex-parte hearings, which are often scheduled for the following day. For certain types of accommodation, such as an ASL interpreter, the court must have adequate advance notice in order to provide the accommodation.
The court may grant, modify or deny the request. The information presented will be kept confidential unless ordered released by a judicial officer, or a written waiver of confidentiality is received from the requestor.
The court will evaluate all requests to make reasonable modifications to its policies, practices, and procedures when these modifications are necessary to avoid discriminating against a person because of a disability.
Service animals are permitted in court facilities. The ADA defines a service animal as any guide dog, signal dog, or other animal individually trained to provide assistance to an individual with a disability. Service animals may go to all areas of the court where customers are normally allowed.
For instructions, forms, and additional information, please use the links on the right side of this page.
For free tools that allow persons with visual disabilities to read documents in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, please visit http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/accessibility/main.html. These tools convert PDF documents into either HTML or ASCII text that can then be read by many screen-reading programs.
For further information:
Jurors: Please contact the Jury Services Office at (619) 450-5757.
Court employees: To request accommodation for yourself, please contact your supervisor or the court's Human Resources Department. For information on assisting court customers with ADA issues, refer to the court's Intranet.
