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See how new and renovated courthouses are making jury service a more comfortable experience.

The Court Facilities Advisory Committee today voted to recommend to the Judicial Council that all 23 current judicial branch projects continue based on the general criteria of working with available funding, not incurring additional costs, or wasting funds. Projects would be grouped into four broad categories that would determine how far an individual project can proceed until adequate funding is restored.

Courthouse projects in various stages—all require funding to continue. Others are indefinitely delayed.

While the model has helped equalize funding gaps across counties, chronic underfunding of the judicial branch has complicated its rollout.

Since 2002, the judicial branch has overseen the addition of 29 new safe and accessible court facilities around the state, improving access to justice for millions of Californians.

Facing growing numbers of civil and family law litigants representing themselves, courts are expanding services offered through “self-help” centers.

The Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles is undergoing a retrofit of its lighting fixtures that will recover installation costs in less than two years and save taxpayers more than $6 million over the next 10 years in energy savings.

Governor Jerry Brown signed a state budget on Wednesday that will help restore court services slashed during the recession, fund courthouse projects, and improve access to justice for millions of Californians.  

Demolition work to prepare the site for a new Santa Barbara Criminal Courthouse is scheduled to begin in the next few weeks. Perimeter fencing and other preparations for demolition are set to begin Sept. 24.

A statement from California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye on the revised budget proposal for the judicial branch.

The Judicial Council received a report on how the state’s trial courts used additional funding included in this fiscal year’s judicial branch budget to expand hours, reopen closed locations, and invest in new technology to increase access to justice for the public.

Governor Gavin Newsom signed his first state budget on Thursday, which includes nearly $470 million in new judicial branch funding to continue the courts’ steady recovery after years of deep cuts.