The Superior Court of California for and in the County of Santa Clara is the state trial court in and for
Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...
.
History
San Jose was chosen as the initial site for the state's capitol in 1849, which it held until 1851, when legislators voted to move to Vallejo. After Santa Clara County was formed on April 25, 1851, a contest was held to select a design for a new building worthy of being a state capitol in 1860. The winning entry, designed by Levi Goodrich, was constructed from 1866 to 1868 at a cost of .
The courthouse was destroyed by fire in May 1931. Reconstruction work began in December 1931 and completed in August 1932; a dedication ceremony for the reconstructed courthouse was held on September 17. As originally completed in 1868, the courthouse was topped by a copper-covered dome; the copper sheathing melted in the intense heat from the 1931 fire and the dome was removed during reconstruction. After the disastrous 1931 fire and rebuilding, it survives today as the Old Courthouse, which was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
as part of the St. James Square National Historic District in 1979.
A modern courthouse was completed in 1964, replacing an older Hall of Records which had been built adjacent to the county courthouse. The Hall of Justice, located a few blocks to the north, was completed in 1991. The Family Justice Center was completed in 2016, consolidating court operations from six different facilities in a single building.
The doctrine of
corporate personhood
Corporate personhood or juridical personality is the legal notion that a juridical person such as a corporation, separately from its associated human beings (like owners, managers, or employees), has at least some of the legal rights and respon ...
in US law is commonly traced to the 1886 decision of the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
in ''
Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad
''Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company'', 118 U.S. 394 (1886), is a United States corporate law, corporate law case of the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court concerning taxation of railroad propertie ...
Downtown San Jose
Downtown San Jose is the central business district of San Jose, California, San Jose, California, United States. Downtown is one of the largest tech Business cluster, clusters in Silicon Valley, as well as the cultural and political center of Sa ...
Palo Alto
Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
Th ...
* Santa Clara Courthouse, Santa Clara
* South County Courthouse, Morgan Hill
;Closed
* Park Center Family Court, Downtown San Jose (closed August 15, 2016)
* Notre Dame Courthouse, Notre Dame Avenue, Downtown San Jose (closed August 22, 2016)
* Ruff Drive Courthouse, Ruff Drive, San Jose (closed 2008)
* Sunnyvale Courthouse,
Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States.
Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, ...
(closed August 15, 2016)
* Terraine Courthouse, Terraine Street, Downtown San Jose (closed August 22, 2016)
Areas Served
The Court serves the Incorporated Cities, Towns & Census Designated Places of Santa Clara County.
(Incorporated Cities and or Towns are marked with an asterisk (*).)
* Alum Rock
*
Burbank
Burbank may refer to:
Places Australia
* Burbank, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane
United States
* Burbank, California, a city in Los Angeles County
* Burbank, Santa Clara County, California, a census-designated place
* Burbank, Illinois, ...
Palo Alto
Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
Th ...
Stanford
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...
*
Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale () is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States.
Sunnyvale lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101 and is bordered by portions of San Jose to the north, ...
Lucy H. Koh
Lucy Haeran Koh (born August 7, 1968) is an American lawyer serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Koh previously served as a United States district judge of the United States Distri ...
*
Jack Komar
Judge Jack Komar is a Superior Court Judge of Santa Clara County, California. He succeeded Justice Ronald B. Robie, of the California Court of Appeal
The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in the U.S. st ...
Aaron Persky
Michael Aaron Persky (born 1962) is an American attorney and former judge of the Santa Clara County Superior Court from 2003 to 2018.
In 2016, Persky gained attention after his ruling in the case ''People v. Turner'', in which he sentenced St ...
, Recalled by voters in 2018 after his sentencing of Brock Turner in
People v. Turner
''People v. Turner'', formally ''The People of the State of California v. Brock Allen Turner'' (2015), was a criminal case in which Brock Allen Turner was convicted by jury trial of three counts of felony sexual assault.
On January 18, 2015, o ...
Superior Courts of California
Superior courts in California are the state trial courts with general jurisdiction to hear and decide any civil or criminal action which is not specially designated to be heard in some other court or before a governmental agency. As mandated by ...
Superior Court
In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...