Editing Los Angeles County, California (section)

=== Legal system ===
{{further|Los Angeles County Superior Court}}

The Los Angeles County Superior Court is the county's court of general jurisdiction, while the [[U.S. District Court for the Central District of California]] may hear cases where federal jurisdiction is present. Both are headquartered in a large cluster of government buildings in the city's Civic Center.

Historically, the courthouses were county-owned buildings that were maintained at county expense, which created significant friction since the trial court judges, as officials of the state government, had to lobby the county Board of Supervisors for facility renovations and upgrades. In turn, the state judiciary successfully persuaded the state Legislature to authorize the transfer of all courthouses to the state government in 2008 and 2009 (so that judges would have direct control over their own courthouses). Courthouse security is still provided by the county government under a contract with the state.

Unlike the largest city in the United States, [[New York City]], all of the city of Los Angeles and most of its important suburbs are located within a single county. As a result, both the county superior court and the federal district court are respectively the busiest courts of their type in the nation.<ref>''A look at your Superior Court'', Public Information Office, Los Angeles Superior Court</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org/aboutcourt/history.htm |title=LA Court |work=lasuperiorcourt.org |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219135841/http://lasuperiorcourt.org/aboutcourt/history.htm |archive-date=February 19, 2009}}</ref>

Many celebrities have been seen in Los Angeles courts. In 2003, the television show ''Extra'' (based in nearby [[Glendale, California|Glendale]]) found itself running so many reports on the legal problems of local celebrities that it spun them off into a separate show, ''Celebrity Justice''.

State cases are appealed to the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District, which is also headquartered in the [[Civic Center, Los Angeles|Civic Center]], and then to the [[Supreme Court of California|California Supreme Court]], which is headquartered in [[San Francisco]] but also hears argument in Los Angeles (again, in the Civic Center). Federal cases are appealed to the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit|Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit]], which hears them at its branch building in [[Pasadena, California|Pasadena]]. The court of last resort for federal cases is the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]