In San Diego County, all cases are located in one of two court systems. The systems are the state court system and the federal court system.
STATE COURT SYSTEM
The state court system is larger than the federal court system in San Diego county. This is because most issues in lawsuits involve questions of state law, not federal law. In the state court sys tem, there are ten different courthouses in San Diego County. Most all civil and criminal cases are located at one of five different Superior Court courthouses. The main courthouse in downtown Diego is called the Hall of Justice. The Hall of Justice is for civil cases only. Right next door is the Central Courthouse. This is for criminal cases only. There are three satellite courthouses which serve the north, east and south San Diego County regions. These courthouses house both criminal and civil cases for those regions. The street addresses are as follows:
SUPERIOR COURTS:
Hall of Justice
330 West Broadway
San Diego, California 92101
San Diego Criminal Courthouse
220 West Broadway
San Diego, California 92101
North County Regional Center
325 South Melrose
Vista, California 92081
East County Regional Center
250 East Main Street
El Cajon, California 92020
South County Regional Center
500 3rd Avenue
Chula Vista, California 91910
In addition to these superior court courthouses, San Diego County also has five “specialty” courthouses. They are the family law court, probate court, small claims and traffic court, juvenile court and Ramona court. The family law court handles all divorce cases and issues regarding child support and child custody/visitation. Probate court handles all probate matters. But it also has two courtrooms that hear divorces and domestic violence restraining orders. The small claims/traffic court handles all small claims matters and traffic infractions. Juvenile court is responsible for handling most criminal matters involving defendants under the age of 18. It also handles misdemeanor traffic offenses involving minors and matters involving abuse or neglect to determine whether a minor should become a ward of the state. The Ramona court is for traffic, unlawful detainers, small claims and minor offenses in the north San Diego county area. The street addresses are as follows:
Family Law Court
1555 Sixth Avenue
San Diego, California 92101
Probate Court
Madge Bradley Building
1409 Fourth Avenue
San Diego, California 92101
Small Claims/Traffic
Kearney Mesa Courthouse
8905 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard
San Diego, California 92123
Juvenile Court
251 Meadowlark Drive
San Diego, California 92123
Ramona Court
1428 Montecito Road
Ra mona, California 92065
PHONE NUMBERS: Contacting the courthouses can be a frustrating and sometimes futile experience. Most of the phone numbers are really just to recorded information. Here is a list of general informational numbers for the ten courthouses:
Hall of Justice (downtown civil)
Civil Business Office (Unlimited Civil, Unlimited
Unlawful Detainers, and Limited Civil):
(619) 450-7275
Civil (Limited Unlawful Detainers and Dept. 5 matters):
(619) 450-7276
Small Claims Appeals, Arbitration & Mediation:
(619) 450-7300
San Diego Criminal Courthouse (downtown criminal)
Information Desk:
(619) 450-5700
Central Records:
(619) 450-7361
Criminal Records (General):
(619) 450-5400
Criminal Records (Limited):
(619) 450-5400
Appeals/Appellate Division:
(619) 450-5348
North County Regional Center (Vista Superior Court)
Information/Business Office
(760) 201-8600
Administration:
(760) 201-8600 x123
Appeals:
(760) 201-8600 x17120
Civil:
(760) 201-8600 x150
Criminal:
(760) 201-8600 x160
East County Regional Center (El Cajon Superior Court)
Civil and Small Claims Filing/Records:
(619) 456-4100
Criminal Filing/Records:
(619) 456-4100
Family Law Filing/Records:
(61 9) 456-4100
South County Regional Center (Chula Vista Superior Court)
Administration:
(619) 746-6416
Criminal/Traffic/Minor Offense Filing/Records:
(619) 746-6200
Family Law Court (downtown)
Family Law Business Office:
(619) 450-7777
Family Court Services:
(619) 450-7888
Family Law Facilitator Recorded Information Line:
(619) 450-5200
Probate Court (downtown)
Probate Services:
(619) 450-7676
Family Law Business Office:
(619) 450-7575
Small Claims/Traffic (Kearny Mesa)
Small Claims Information:
(858) 634-1919
Smal l Claims Advisor Information Line:
(858) 634-1900
Juvenile Court (Meadowlark)
Central Business Office:
(858) 634-1600
General Information:
(858) 634-1600
Adoptions:
(858) 634-1555
Traffic – Juvenile:
(858) 634-1616
Ramona Court
All Calls: (760) 738-2400
If you have a case that is already filed, then you can contact the courtroom directly about the case. This is an on-line resource that the Superior Court website provides. In state court, the courtrooms are called departments. The following link will take you to the superior court website Department Assignments page. After you click on the link, you will see a navigation bar where you can select one of nine courthouses. You can search by department number or name of the judge. Make sure when you call the department, you have your case number or else the clerk will likely not be able to help you.
San Diego County also has a state court of appeal. It is called the Fourth District, Division One court of appeal. It is located at 750 B Street, Suite 300, San Diego, California 92101. This link for the court’s website is as follows: http://www.courts.ca.gov/4dca.htm.
FEDERAL COURT SYSTEM
There are two federal court courthouse in San Diego County. The first one is called the Edward J. Schwartz U.S. Courthouse. It is located at 940 Front Street, San Diego, California 92101. This courthouse contains all the federal civil and criminal cases. It also handles all o f the immigration cases and is considered the busiest federal courthouse in the United States. It has a great website which lists all of its local rules and contact information for the courtrooms. The link for the website is http://www.casd.uscourts.gov/.
The second federal courthouse in San Diego County is the Jacob Weinberger U.S. Bankruptcy Court. It handles all of the bankruptcy filings in San Diego County. It is located at 325 West F Street, San Diego, California 92101. The website link is http://www.casb.uscourts.gov/.
