TO: All Traffic Court Bench Officers

FROM: Hon. Gail Ruderman Feuer

Chair of the Traffic Committee

DATE: September 9August 31, 200910 (REVISED)

SUBJECT: Best Practices Memorandum re Request for Change of Venue to County Seat

Vehicle Code section 40502(b) provides that the place specified in a notice to appear shall be any of the following: “Upon demand of the person arrested, before a judge or other magistrate having jurisdiction of the offense at the county seat of the county in which the offense is alleged to have been committed.” This Best Practices Memorandum shall address when the request may be timely made, which courts are the county seats in Los AngelesCounty, the requirements for a change of venue to the county seat, and where and how the defendant should be arraigned if a transfer to the county seat is granted.

Section 40502(b) provides that the place specified in the notice to appear “shall” be the county seat if certain conditions are met and the request is made “upon demand of the person arrested ….” Accordingly, a demand that a case be heard at the county seat is only timely if made at the time of the arrest to the police officer. If a request is made for a change of venue to the county seat at the time of arraignment or later in the proceedings, and the request was not first made to the police officer at the time of arrest, the request is untimely and should be denied. If a defendant asserts that the police officer denied a properly made request, then the request for change of venue to the county seat may be made to the bench officer no later than at the time of the arraignment. It is up to the bench officer to decide when and how to determine whether a timely request was made to the police officer. In this regard, Vehicle Code section 40507 permits the defendant to appear for arraignment through counsel (cf. Penal Code 977(a)). The bench officer should require that any transfer request made by counsel appearing without the defendant present be supported by an appropriate declaration or other competent evidence showing that the defendant made a timely request to the police officer.

Pursuant to Government Code section 23600, the county seat for the county of Los Angeles includes the court sites within the City of Los Angeles, which include: (1) Metropolitan Courthouse, (2) Van Nuys Courthouse, (3) West Los Angeles Courthouse, (4) Chatsworth Courthouse, and (5) San Pedro Courthouse. Where a defendant has made a timely request for transfer of a case to the county seat (meeting the requirements for a transfer), the bench officer may transfer the case to one of the courts. It is within the bench officer’s discretion to decide to which of the five county seat courthouses the case should be transferred.

There is no consensus, however, over whether the transfer is mandatory if a defendant meets the requirements for transfer under section (b). Some bench officers take the position that even in that case, a transfer is within the discretion of the bench officer under Vehicle Code section 40502(a), while others believe it is mandatory.

Pursuant to section 40502(b), the officer should set a case for hearing in the county seat “only if the person arrested resides, or the person’s principal place of employment is located, closer to the county seat than to the magistrate nearest or most accessible to the place where the arrest is made.” Accordingly, a transfer of a case to a county seat court should only be made where one of these convenience factors is met.

Where the bench officer determines that a change of venue to the county seat is timely and meets the requirements of a transfer, the bench officer may (1) arraign the defendant in that court and obtain a time waiver for setting of the trial date in the court to which the case will be transferred, and have the receiving court send out a notice of the trial date or (2) set the case for arraignment in the receiving court, with a time waiver for arraignment if necessary. It is important for the court granting the request for a transfer to the county seat not to arraign the defendant in that court without obtaining a time waiver because it will be difficult for the receiving court to obtain the court records and notice a hearing within the 45 day requirement for trial. If the defendant is not willing to waive time for the trial, then the case must be set for an arraignment in the receiving court. Bench officers should not, however, transfer cases that are in Failure to Appear, collection status, or post-conviction status.