TUOLUMNE COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT: TEMPORARY REDUCTION OF CLERK COUNTER HOURS

The Tuolumne County Superior Court (Court), on a temporary basis, will be closing its clerks counter an hour earlier than our current counter hours. Over the last six months, the Court has experienced an extraordinary turnover of clerks; nearly one-third of our clerks are new to the job. The large number of new clerks has significantly increased training workload and prompted delays in processing legal documents. Court staff have tried to alleviate the delays in legal processing by working weekends. Despite the best efforts of Court staff, the important work of training new clerks and processing legal documents continue to be delayed.

The Court believes that reducing clerks’ counter hours by one hour a day will help provide additional time for training and processing legal documents. Our current clerk counter hours are 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The temporary reduced clerk counter hours will be 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Government Code Section 68106 (2) requires Superior Courts to give the public notice of the reduction of hours of the clerks’ offices at least 60 days before the reduction occurs. This notice serves as the public notice required by Government Code Section 68106 (2), and the reduction of hours will start October 2, 2023. It is the intention of the Court that the reduction of hours will be temporary, initially for a period of three months.

Comments or concerns regarding the reduction of clerks’ counter hours can be emailed on or before September 25, 2023, at publiccomment@tuolumne.courts.ca.gov or mailed to Hector Gonzalez, CEO, 12855 Justice Center Dr., Sonora, CA, 95370. If mailed, comments and concerns must be received on or before September 25, 2023, to be considered before the reduction of hours on October 2, 2023.