Nominee to 3rd District appeal court known for her triage mastery

Time will tell if Judge Laurie M. Earl is exactly what the 3rd District Court of Appeal needs. She says she is good at triage.

The 3rd District's backlog has become a pressing issue to some appellate attorneys and their clients.

People who know her said the veteran Sacramento County Superior Court judge would bring two key attributes to the appellate court: organizational skills and criminal justice experience. Gov. Gavin Newsom nominated Earl to the district's lone vacant seat on Monday.

"I'm certainly aware from the media about complaints about the backlog in this court I am so excited to join," Earl said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I'm not privy to details about that. I think I would just approach it how I approach my current job."

She added, "The 3rd District receives significantly more cases than some of the other districts in California with fewer judges per case. I think they've done a good job keeping up with the work they do, which is just enormous volumes."

She said she would look at which cases should have priority and which ones can be dealt with quickly and trust her staff. She added she has experience with triage on the Sacramento County Superior Court.

"I was presiding judge from 2012 to 2013, when the state was in huge economic turmoil and the courts were severely underfunded," Earl said.

"She's the type of person who organizes," said Sacramento Supervising Public Defender Norman H. Dawson. "Even when she was not the assistant PJ, even when she was just a judge on the bench, the [Sacramento] judiciary kind of put her in charge of making sure the trains ran on time. When we had the COVID crisis, Laurie helped oversee that panel that restructured the courtrooms and helped restructure the trial procedures."

Dawson's experiences with Earl illustrate her variety of legal experience. He said Earl was a mentor when he was a young intern and attorney in the public defender's office. Then he tried cases against her during her nine years as a deputy district attorney. Later on, he had several criminal cases in her courtroom, though she's also heard many other case types in her career.

"She's someone who is going to help get the backlog under control," Dawson said.

Veteran appellate lawyer Jon B. Eisenberg has filed two unsuccessful petitions to the California Supreme Court seeking to transfer or expedite long-delayed cases from the 3rd District. He also has a pending complaint before the Commission on Judicial Performance.

Several attorneys who appear before the court have confirmed delays have negatively affected their criminal and civil clients. The Judicial Council's own data confirms the court has for years been among the slowest to decide cases, and it has long had one of the state's highest caseloads per justice.

Eisenberg has pointed in particular at delays in criminal cases that have seen the court reduce or throw out sentences long after defendants had already served them.

Eisenberg said Earl appears to have the right background for the court.

"Judge Earl strikes me as a first round No. 1 draft pick," he said via email on Tuesday.

He added, "Given Judge Earl's experience as a public defender and a prosecutor, I expect she'll appreciate the importance of adjudicating criminal appeals in a timely fashion."

Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said Earl helped to keep the superior court operating during COVID.

"There was no playbook on how to do something like they were dealing with," Schubert said. "She along with Judge [Michael G.] Bowman and Judge [Russell L.] Hom really were the key to keeping us going in Sacramento County. She steps up during times of crisis."

Hom is the court's presiding judge, while Bowman is the assistant presiding judge.

Schubert added Earl is a friend, going back to their days together in the district attorney's office. Both are openly gay. Earl has been with her wife, a teacher, for nearly 20 years.

Earl and Schubert both worked in the office's rape unit. In 2000, they worked together to get a John Doe arrest warrant on a 1994 rape case before a Statute of Limitations ran out. Schubert was the prosecutor, and she called Earl to testify in a hearing overseen by Judge Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye, who would become the state's chief justice.

Cantil-Sakauye approved the warrant. That decision later led to a conviction in that case and a precedent allowing John Doe warrants in DNA cold cases.

At 60, Earl is older than many recent nominees on state and federal appellate benches -- though Newsom also named then 66-year-old Martin J. Jenkins to the California Supreme Court last year.

"I'd like to think that no matter how much time she's going to be able to give them, it's a big deal to be able to put someone on with that kind of background," Dawson said.

"I think change is good," Earl said. "It will be good to have fresh eyes over there."