Retired judges are called on to reduce court backlogs

Retired judges will be called upon to help resolve criminal cases and trim court backlogs statewide, California Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye announced Tuesday.

In response to the pandemic and cutbacks to court operations, she said retired judges already working under the existing temporary assigned judges program who fill vacancies and other absences will conduct readiness conferences and discuss potential resolutions and plea bargains.

"The success of this program will likely hinge on a judge who both understands the local court culture and is highly regarded by both the defense and the prosecution," Cantil-Sakauye said in her written order.

Approximately 350 assigned judges were part of the program, said Judicial Council of California spokesperson Merrill Balassone, adding it's unclear at the moment how many will be needed following the chief justice's order.

"We need to wait and see what the courts want," Balassone said in an email. "Each court is unique and some may decide to use assigned judges while others may want to use sitting judges."

To encourage applications to the program, Cantil-Sakauye stated in her order the suspension of a policy requiring a 90-day waiting period after retirement for assigned judges to be called if they will be conducting readiness conferences.

Orange County Superior Court Executive Officer David Yamasaki said he was pleased to hear of the program and ongoing efforts to remedy enormous backlogs accumulating since the start of the pandemic.

"This provides an added benefit to courts like Orange which carries numerous judicial vacancies due to retirements and allows us to receive assistance from qualified and experienced judges that are participants in the TAJ program," he said in an email.

As Cantil-Sakauye stated in her order, appearing at the readiness conference is mandatory, but a defendant can choose to appear through counsel and not be present.

The conference could also take place in person or remotely, the chief justice wrote.

In addition, a court requesting an emergency order with a time extension for holding criminal trials will be required to include a description of their readiness conference program, according to the order.

Also, courts won't be required to get special approval for using an assigned judge more than the maximum service-day limitation of 1,320 days.

"This will streamline the process of providing courts with critically needed judicial assignment in a timely manner and also expand the pool of assigned judges available to courts for this process," Cantil-Sakauye wrote.