James LaPorte
James LaPorte biography
I am currently serving as a Kings County Superior Court Judge and would be honored to continue to do so.
I have been a Kings County Superior Court Judicial Officer for over 14 years. For 12 years I served as the sole Kings County Superior Court Commissioner and since 2005 I have served as a Kings County Superior Court Judge.
My early legal experience in Kings County began as a legal advisor to local law enforcement, fire, schools, and the jail during 12 years of service at the Kings County Counsel Office.
Since 1993, my legal career evolved from that of a lawyer to a jurist as a Kings County Superior Court Judicial Officer. My aim over these years has been to exercise judgment, but not personal will in applying the law to the facts of a case. I am grateful and privileged that I have had the opportunity to serve as a judge and to further the most fundamental aims of human rights, that of equality before the law and public safety and security. Consistent with the law, I desire to continue to rightly adjudicate the disputes between litigants and to render judgment on those who are proven to have done criminal wrong. My goal is to protect the rights of victims and the public.
As Justice Paul Turner observed: "Judges stand for justice, obedience to the law, dignity, safety and security for our families, love of the Constitution, and equal treatment under the law."
LaPorte on roll as judge
Experience as a Kings County Superior Court Judicial Officer
I currently serve as a Kings County Superior Court Judge.
As a Judge or Superior Court Commissioner, I have presided over every type of criminal and civil case in Kings County, including 7 murder cases. My experience includes serving as a bench officer in Kings County since 1993, 12 years as the first Kings County Superior Court Commissioner, handling the full range of cases that a Superior Court Judge must adjudicate, and for the past 2 years as a Superior Court Judge. My responsibilities as a judge or commissioner have included presiding over more than 130 jury trials, and multiple 3 strike cases. I have also presided over cases involving life without the possibility of parole.
I have served both on the local as well as the state wide judicial level. I am gratified to currently serve as the Presiding Judge of the Appellate Division, as well, at times, as the Acting Presiding Judge of the Kings County Superior Court. I was appointed by California Supreme Court Chief Justice George to serve on the statewide Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Criminal Jury Instructions. These Jury Instructions are used by judges and juries throughout the State of California. This Committee recently won a national award for innovation in plain speech jury instructions.
LaPorte on court and media interaction
Expand Community Access to the Court.
To meet access needs of the public, we will continue to expand Court information and services available on line, by broadening Web page access, including, in the future, allowing traffic schools to be taken on line, and payment of traffic fines. We hope to also provide more information for self represented litigants regarding small claims and family law cases, and information on when to hire an attorney. Future expansions may include on line electronic filing of cases. Expansion of our self help center will also increase public access as will public presentations by our judges on topics of interest.
Ensure Adequate Trial Departments.
Our smaller bench size requires flexibility of all judicial officers to handle any type of case. The current pragmatic vision of cross training all judicial officers and allowing all bench officers to try cases as well as handle pretrial calendars, will be expanded to meet future experience needs caused by increased caseloads.
Expand Contact with the State Judicial Branch
Our local Court cannot be isolated from the State Court Judicial Branch. Because court funding from tax dollars has shifted from the County to the State, all of our judges will need to operate on the statewide level on various State committees, to ensure adequate contact with funding sources and State Court decision makers.
LaPorte on court priorities
1. Methamphetamine Abuse: The greatest problem facing the courts is the increasing case load caused by the plague of methamphetamine abuse.
The Superior Court of Kings County recently instituted the operation of a Drug Court which hopefully can decrease abuse of methamphetamine by the participants. I served on the judicial subcommittee which set up the guidelines for the Drug Court. The system uses intensified probation and counseling services and can result in immediate consequences or temporary incarceration for participants who violate the Drug Court rules. The expansion of the Drug Court program and the enhancement of Proposition 36 programs and monitoring, can help in some reduction of the County's abuse problems and positively affect Court case loads.
2. Jail overcrowding: Jail overcrowding is a complex problem that involves County government and prosecutors, the Kings County Sheriff, the local State Prisons and the judiciary. The result of jail overcrowding is the early release of persons convicted of misdemeanors and lower grade felonies.
The solutions include the setting up and implementation of a task force comprised of all parts of local government, the State Prisons and the judiciary as recommended by Justice Timothy Buckley in his Order fixing the jail population cap at the physical rated capacity of the new jail. Other solutions involve greater implementation of alternative probation programs including electronic "cuffs" and other intensive probation programs. The jail bed savings could maximize opportunities of jailing scofflaws who violate the intensive probation programs, and increase incarceration days of sentenced defendants without greatly impacting county budgets.
3. Insufficient judicial resources for impacted case loads.
With almost 20,000 State prisoners in Kings County, the judicial caseload is frequently overloaded with inmate related litigation. State inmates file frequent Writs of Habeas Corpus, civil litigation and are involved in many criminal cases arising from within the three County Prisons.
Kings County has been designated by the State of California as workload impacted and the Administrative Office of the Courts has estimated that the King County bench has a judicial need of 11.4 judicial positions. The current bench has 7 judges and 1.5 Commissioners. When the Court adds an 8th judge, now promised after June 2009, the Kings County Courts will reorganize. The reorganization could include expansion of direct calendaring, and civil trial options and ensuring that there are four trial departments open every week. The details of reorganization are discussed in the next question.
LaPorte on court delays
As mentioned, we are already efficiently handling the work of 11.4 judicial officers with 7 Superior Court judges and one full time and one part time Commissioner. When the Legislature adds the promised 8th judge after June 2009 we will reorganize. We will continue to expand direct calendaring as well as civil trial options especially for impacted civil jury trials. We will also be able to more quickly process other civil matters such as landlord/ tenant matters to meet the needs of our County residents and statewide timeliness averages. We currently meet state wide timeliness averages for misdemeanor as well as felony cases. I or one of the other trial department judges now ride circuit to the Corcoran and Avenal courts every week. The 8th judge should be also able to assist in covering these courts. That will ensure that the Court will be able to have at least 4 trial departments open every week. We have recently reset calendars to help ease the burden on Corcoran Police Officers in providing officer testimony. We hope to be able to expand that opportunity for other police agencies in the County. Some of the heavy case load arises out of Writs of Habeas Corpus cases from the almost 20,000 inmates in State prisons in Kings County. We routinely are in the top three Courts in the State in the number of Writ cases we handle per judge. We have successfully utilized a staff attorney and a clerk to initially process these cases and hope that as these caseloads expand, that some additional resources will be available from the Administrative Office of the Courts. Cross training of all judicial Officers has allowed us to maximize the judicial resources available. Caseloads now are rapidly shifted between departments daily as the needs arise. Our bench can set the tone for legal competence to reduce litigation delays. Further judicial education and training will enable our bench to meet the needs of our County.