The Central District comprises a pretty good size area. The main bulk of the cases are moved through Los Angeles. Los Angeles basically has two courthouses.
Roybal Federal Building
One is called the Roybal Building and is in downtown LA at 255 East Temple Street. There are courtrooms there and there is definitely business being handled there.
The main use of the courthouse, in addition to a marshal lock-up, is to bring people through there who make their initial appearance.
So, there's a lot of people appearing typically on a 2:00 calendar on certain days of the week who are arrested, brought in, they face their charges:
- They get their indictment if there's an indictment on their case,
- certain court dates are set there,
- custody status is argued by their attorney and
- then the case is assigned to a court within the Central District depending on exactly where the crime occurred.
Other Federal Courts
In addition to that court in Los Angeles, there's also the relatively new court that was built on First Street. It's a beautiful modern courthouse and that's where most of the federal criminal judges sit who sit in downtown Los Angeles. In addition, there's the:
- Santa Ana courthouse,
- Ronald Regan Building in Orange County. That's part of the central district as well. Not as big, not as many courthouses, but their definitely doing trials there and handling cases there, again, depending on where your crime was committed and whether they decide to assign it to that Santa Ana courthouse.
- Riverside courthouse, which does not have a lot of cases, but they definitely do some federal crimes in their jurisdiction.
So, that pretty much gives you an idea of the central district of California. There's many other federal courts in California.
Again, depending on exactly where the crime was committed — that seems to be how they figure out which federal criminal court to send a case.
If you or a loved one has been arrested in the central district, faces federal charges, you need a criminal defense attorney with experience, you've come to the right place.
I've been practicing federal criminal defense now for almost 30 years. Pick up the phone. Ask for a meeting with Ron Hedding. I stand at the ready to help you.