The Santa Monica Courthouse is located at 1725 Main Street in Santa Monica, California 90401. Santa Monica courthouse is located near the intersection of the 10 freeway and Pacific Coast Highway. Santa Monica court is located within walking distance of the world famous Santa Monica Pier and the popular shopping and entertainment destination known as the third street promenade.
Santa Monica courthouse hears primarily traffic court issues and a civil calendar. In years past Santa Monica courthouse used to hear a full criminal calendar as well but those days are gone. The Santa Monica courthouse is no longer staffed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney or the Los Angeles Public Defenders Office. Most criminal matters from this area will be heard at the LAX courthouse.
On rare occasion criminal cases set for trial will be assigned to the Santa Monica Courthouse due to severe overcrowding in Los Angeles Superior Court, but don’t come here looking for your arraignment. This is a high volume courthouse and like all things run by the government, it’s going to take you hours if you need to go there. To avoid the hassle associated with a trip to the Long Beach courthouse, you may want to consider hiring a Los Angeles Attorney to appear on your behalf.
Traffic on the westside is heavily congested, parking is an all out war, and space in general is at a premium. If you are the creative type, you may want to park in one of the free garages near third street promenade, or validate in one of the businesses for even more free parking. If you park in the courthouse lot, be prepared to spend about $10 for your stay.
The Santa Monica Courthouse is often confused with both the West Los Angeles courthouse and the LAX courthouse. Many a day has been wasted by a misinformed Angeleno doing the Westside courthouse shuffle.
Things are now more confusing than ever as the West LA courthouse on Purdue is closed, the Malibu courthouse is closed, and the Beverly Hills courthouse is only accepted limited cases. So if your ticket was originally set for West LA, you have to go to Beverly Hills for arraignment, but your trial will be in Santa Monica. If your ticket was set in Malibu, everything is now in Santa Monica.
If it’s a Beverly Hills ticket, you still go to Beverly Hills for arraignment, but trial is in Santa Monica. Santa Monica tickets, which used to go to West LA because Santa Monica didn’t do tickets, now stay in Santa Monica. But don’t try to arraign one of these in Beverly Hills, not happening. Final caveat, if your case has been filed as a misdemeanor (driving on suspended license or driving without a license) ignore all of this and head to LAX court, or maybe Van Nuys. See it’s all perfectly organized just like the rest of Los Angeles.
The traffic clerk’s office in the Santa Monica courthouse is so busy that they have installed a television in the hallway above the line. You now get the pleasure of watching about an hour or two of CNN while you wait to the get the run around about your traffic ticket. If you manage to get your case called in to court, you may be surprised to see ex-mayor Kenneth Hahn calling the traffic court calendar and asking you if you want to plead guilty or not guilty to running that stop sign.
Santa Monica Courthouse traffic cases with failures to appear or failures to pay are handled by a private collection agency known as GC Services. Anyone with traffic warrants or tickets in collections at the Santa Monica courthouse should contact a lawyer with experience dealing with traffic cases in collections. Individuals charged with driving without a valid license or driving on a suspended license should exercise caution due to the risk of increased insurance premiums, or further suspensions for being a negligent operator and receiving too many points on a DMV record.
Unlicensed drivers may also face immigration issues. Anyone dealing with immigration issues should take care to avoid misdemeanor convictions. Hiring a lawyer to assist you with traffic court issues can be cost effective when you factor in the savings from reduced fines and the other penalties that can be associated with a conviction.
