Access the Placer County Superior Court

Placer County Superior Court Overview

California has one trial court per county. That court is called the Superior Court. There are no separate district courts, county courts, justice courts, or municipal courts in the state. Years ago, those lower courts were merged into the Superior Court system, so every kind of state case in the county is filed in one place. The Placer County Superior Court is that single trial court for Placer.

The court handles all criminal cases, all civil cases, small claims, probate, conservatorships, family law and support, mental health, and juvenile law. A small claims fight, a felony case, a divorce, a will contest, a guardianship, or a traffic ticket all start here. The court then routes the file to the right division, courthouse, and department. The court phone for most public questions is (916) 408-6000.

Placer is part of the Third Appellate District. The seat of that appellate court is in Sacramento. Appeals from limited civil, misdemeanor, infraction, and small claims cases go to the Superior Court's own appellate division first. Most other appeals go straight to the Third District Court of Appeal. The California Supreme Court may then review those rulings, but that review is mostly by choice.

A snapshot of the court home page sets the scene. The lead-in image below comes from the official site at placer.courts.ca.gov, which lists tiles for online portal access, calendars, remote appearances, and self-help.

The home page acts as the front door for case search, fee schedules, and court contact info. From there, users move into the Online Portal, the divisions pages, or the locations page.

List of Placer County Superior Court Departments

The Superior Court splits its work between four sites and a Tahoe branch. The Hon. Howard G. Gibson Courthouse in Roseville is the main location and holds Departments 30 through 44. The Historic Courthouse in Auburn holds Departments 1 through 6. A Jail Courtroom in Roseville runs Department 20. The Juvenile Courthouse in Auburn runs Department 12. The list below maps each department block to its address, phone, and main case types based on the court's judicial assignments page.

Tahoe Courthouse at 2501 N. Lake Blvd., Tahoe City is the regional branch for the east side of the county. Its clerk and building hours run 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. Confirm the direct phone for Tahoe on the official court locations page before a visit.

A second look at the court site shows the layout of judicial assignments by department. The screenshot below comes from the court's judicial assignments page.

The page is updated when judges rotate or a calendar shifts. Use it to confirm which judge holds your case before any hearing.

Superior Court vs. Court of Appeal vs. Supreme Court

State court work in California flows up through three layers. The trial layer is the Superior Court. The middle layer is the Court of Appeal. The top layer is the California Supreme Court. Each layer has its own role, its own jurisdiction, and its own filing rules. The table below sets out the basics. Federal courts sit on a separate track and are covered further down.

For most users, court business stops at the Superior Court. Appeals are far less common than trials. When a case does move up, the appellate record is built from the trial court file, so the Superior Court remains the source of truth for the underlying record.

How a Case Moves Through the System

Most state cases never leave the Superior Court. They are filed, heard, ruled on, and closed in Roseville or Auburn. A small share are appealed. A still smaller share reach the state Supreme Court. The flow below shows the full path when a party takes a case all the way up.

Full path: Filing › Superior Court › Court of Appeal (Third District) › California Supreme Court

Criminal flow: Arrest › Booking › First Appearance › Arraignment › Preliminary Hearing or Indictment › Pretrial › Trial › Sentencing › Appeal to Third District › Petition for Review

Civil flow: Complaint or Petition Filed › Answer › Discovery › Law and Motion › Mediation or ADR › Trial › Judgment › Appeal › Petition for Review

Some cases follow a shorter route. Limited civil, misdemeanor, infraction, and small claims appeals stay inside the Superior Court's own appellate division. That keeps low-stakes appeals local and cuts cost. Cases above those limits go up to the Third District in Sacramento.

Civil, Criminal, Family, Probate, and Specialty Divisions

The Placer County Superior Court is split into divisions by case type. Each division has its own page on the court site and its own clerk filing rules. The court's Civil Division hears general civil disputes, harassment, landlord and tenant, small claims, probate, workplace violence, elder abuse, and name changes. Civil files for cases on or after August 28, 2017 may be viewed online when access rules allow.

The Criminal Division hears infractions, misdemeanors, and felonies brought by the District Attorney and other agencies. The DA is Morgan Gire. Criminal documents are courthouse-access only for the public under California Rule of Court 2.503(c). The court keeps bail schedules, criminal forms, and links to collaborative court info on the Criminal Division page.

The Family Law Division covers divorce, paternity, domestic violence, custody, legal separation, support, visitation, and mediation. Family files have tight remote access limits. The Probate Division covers estates, trusts, guardianship of minors, and conservatorships. The Traffic Division covers tickets and infractions, with most cases moving through Department 30 or Department 14.

Specialty courts run inside the criminal calendar. Recovery Court and Proposition 36 sit in Department 32 on the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Wednesdays. Drug Court is in Department 14 on the first Thursday. Veterans Court runs in Department 33 on the second Wednesday. Mental Health Court takes diagnosed defendants who agree to treatment in lieu of jail. Community Court sits in Department 44 on the 1st and 3rd Fridays. Juvenile Drug Court is in Department 43.

Appellate Path and the Third District

Placer County sits in the Third Appellate District. The Third District Court of Appeal is in Sacramento and reviews trial court judgments from Placer, Sacramento, El Dorado, and several other counties. It hears civil, criminal, family, probate, and juvenile appeals from the Superior Court. Most rulings end at the Third District. A party who loses can ask the California Supreme Court to take the case, but the Supreme Court grants review in only a small share of cases.

The Third District handles oral arguments at its Sacramento courthouse and posts opinions on the state court site. For a Placer case, the trial court record is sent up by the Placer clerk after a notice of appeal is filed. Strict timing rules apply. Most civil appeals must be filed within 60 days of notice of entry of judgment. Most criminal appeals must be filed within 60 days of the judgment or order being appealed. Miss those windows and the appeal is generally lost.

Federal Courts Serving Placer County

State and federal cases run on two separate tracks. Placer County is inside the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. The district covers most of the eastern half of the state, with courthouses in Sacramento, Fresno, Redding, Bakersfield, and Yosemite. Federal cases include federal crimes, civil rights suits, federal-question civil actions, diversity cases, prisoner habeas, immigration, Social Security appeals, and federal tax and regulatory cases.

The official district site is caed.uscourts.gov. Filing is through CM/ECF; case access is through PACER. Federal bankruptcy goes to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District at caeb.uscourts.gov. Appeals from the district court go to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District handles federal prosecutions for Placer.

No federal courthouse sits inside Placer County. For most Placer federal cases, the venue is the Sacramento federal courthouse. Check the Eastern District locations page before any in-person trip.

Courthouse Locations and Hours

The court runs from five sites in total. The main site is the Hon. Howard G. Gibson Courthouse in Roseville. The other sites are in Auburn and Tahoe City. Building hours run 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays, with a midday close at the Juvenile Courthouse. Main phone for most divisions is (916) 408-6000. Most mail goes to P.O. Box 619072, Roseville, CA 95661-9072. Traffic mail goes to P.O. Box 619077, Roseville, CA 95661.

• Hon. Howard G. Gibson Courthouse, 10820 Justice Center Drive, Roseville, CA 95678. Departments 30-44. Main court services and Self-Help Center.
• Historic Courthouse, 101 Maple Street, Auburn, CA 95603. Departments 1-6. Clerk's Office on site.
• Jail Courtroom, 11801 Go For Broke Road, Roseville, CA 95678. Department 20. No public clerk services.
• Juvenile Courthouse, 11270 B Avenue, Auburn, CA 95603. Department 12. Juvenile clerk window only.
• Tahoe Courthouse, 2501 N. Lake Blvd., Tahoe City. Regional court services for east Placer.

Court users may assume the courthouse is in Auburn because Auburn is the historic county seat. Many modern services moved to the Gibson Courthouse in Roseville. Confirm which site holds your case before you drive out.

Note: Court files on calendar are not available for public viewing two days before and three days after a hearing, and off-site files can take up to three weeks to retrieve.

No Lower State Courts in California

California is unusual. It has no separate magistrate courts, no justice of the peace courts, no county courts at law, and no municipal courts. After statewide court unification in the late 1990s, all of those lower courts were folded into the Superior Court. Today, all state cases in the county, big or small, start in Placer County Superior Court. Small claims, traffic, misdemeanors, felonies, and limited civil cases all sit on the same court roll.

Inside the court, judicial officers besides judges may hear matters. Commissioners and court-appointed judges pro tem may run small claims, traffic, family, and short-cause civil calendars. They act under judicial authority and their rulings carry the weight of the court. The court's judicial assignments page lists who sits in which department week to week.

Routes to Search Court Cases

Most users start with the Online Portal at webportal.placerco.org/ecourtpublic. The portal allows a Placer County Superior Court case search by party name, company name, or case number plus a filing date. Public case info does not need an account. Public document viewing is broader after creating a portal account, and is limited by case type under California Rule of Court 2.503. Civil and probate documents back to August 28, 2017 may be viewable when access rules allow.

For full case files, users may visit a courthouse and view the file at the clerk's counter. Photo ID and keys are left with the clerk. File-viewing limits are 5 active files at a time for most categories, or up to 50 if requested in chronological order. Copy requests use form PL-CW001. The court does not accept copy requests by phone, email, or fax.

For dockets, hearing dates, and minute orders, see court dockets. For full case files and broader lookup tools, see court records. For probate cases, see probate records. For tickets and infractions, see traffic court records. For arrest records, see criminal records. For clerk contact, hours, and certified copies, see Clerk of the Superior Court.

Related Placer County Resources

For more detail on filing routes, hearing schedules, and online lookup, the related record pages give the next level of detail. The Clerk of the Superior Court page covers certified copy requests, fee tables, and the records counter. The court records page covers the full Online Portal walkthrough and case-type access rules. The FAQ answers common questions on what is public, what is sealed, and how to handle a Placer County Superior Court case lookup when a case is older than 2017.