I have requested an emergency extension from the California Supreme Court Chief Justice for the San Diego Superior Court to remain closed through April 30, 2020. I have every reason to believe this request will be granted and thus, our Court will not be open for regular court business on Monday, April 6, 2020.

Organizations offering free help with emergency court services will continue to provide services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Court works with the Judicial Council of California, State Bar of California, San Diego County Bar Association, and local service providers to assist people in need of selfrepresented services. This includes clinic services in areas of law such as restraining orders and landlord-tenant disputes within San Diego’s courthouses.

In light of California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye’s statewide Order allowing for a two-month suspension of jury trials, the San Diego Superior Court is dismissing all summoned jurors through May 22, 2020. These actions are done in the interest of community health and safety in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The San Diego Superior Court will completely close for all services during Cesar Chavez Day, March 31, 2020, and will reopen to continue providing only emergency services on April 1, 2020.

The San Diego Superior Court has added to the list of time-sensitive, essential functions that are available to provide additional emergency services during the COVID-19 Court Service Suspension. Effective March 24, 2020, the additional following services are now available:

To ensure all Court users understand what is available and what is impacted during the San Diego Superior Court’s service interruption, the Court will provide updates to the community as new information becomes available. To the extent this notice conflicts with any previous notices, the most current update shall govern.

In light of the Public Health Department’s weekend guidance of no more than 50 people in a room, the San Diego Superior Court is now asking all County residents summoned to appear the week of March 16th -19th in the Superior Court not to come to the courthouse. “Our community’s health is important to us all and while we had COVID-19 procedures in place to provide enough social distancing for summoned jurors in our jury services room, having a jury pool of 50 people will not provide us with enough people for fair trials,” says San Diego Superior Court Presiding Judge Lorna Alksne.

In an effort to promote the health and safety of court users and employees as well as mitigate community spread of the Covid-19/Coronavirus, The San Diego Superior Court has suspended all non-emergency services effective March 17, 2020-April 3, 2020:

EXCEPT AS PROVIDED BELOW, THE COURT WILL BE CLOSED FOR:

CRIMINAL

• All criminal proceedings including arraignments, readiness, pre-trial motions, trials and sentencing.

CIVIL

The San Diego Superior Court has developed procedures to ensure it is following the recommendations of State and County Public Health officials to ensure a safe environment for employees and Court users and to mitigate the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). The measures include: 

San Diego’s North County Superior Court continues its tradition of bringing students to the courthouse to talk about modern issues and their legal consequences during the 19th Annual Youth in Court Day. The event, sponsored by the North County Division of the San Diego Superior Court in conjunction with the North County Bar Assocation and The Lawyer Referral Service, will be held on Friday, March 6, 2020. More than 900 students are expected to attend the day-long event where they will be introduced to the court system to learn about present day problems that pass through the courthouse.