Excerpted from DesertSun.com dated October 10, 2023:
Riverside County is expected to get four new judges thanks to a law just signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to address judicial shortages that have contributed to case backlogs and the dismissal early this year of almost 2,000 criminal cases.
…
They won’t get that many any time soon. The new law will mean 26 new judges statewide, likely four of them for Riverside County and five for San Bernardino County, said Robert Wilcox, a spokesman for the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Richard Roth. The exact number for each county could change, Wilcox added.
Riverside County has 75 judges and 14 court commissioners, according to the latest figures provided by the court in May. (Commissioners are judicial officers who preside over minor cases.)
Roth, D-Riverside, introduced SB 75 in January, requesting the authorization of more judges and making specific reference to the need of the two Inland Empire counties. Wilcox said the Judicial Council of California created criteria to determine how many judges go to which counties.