Court Opinion

ID: 9851300
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:10:17.476903+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:20:53.226486
License: Public Domain

MOSK, J.
I dissent.
The majority rather cavalierly assume that their result will place no significant burden on the informal traffic hearing officer system. That, I fear, is wishful thinking. It would seem that every knowledgeable juvenile will now demand counsel before the hearing officer when he is indigent—few juveniles have independent resources—and when the public is required to pay for an appointed attorney.
A series of cases beginning with In re Gault (1967) 387 U.S. 1 [18 L.Ed.2d 527, 87 S.Ct. 1428], has substantially transformed juvenile courts into criminal courts, contrary to the intent behind the original creation of special agencies and tribunals designed to channel youngsters into constructive pursuits. Now my colleagues extend the criminal adversary procedure still further to juvenile traffic hearings, contrary to the legislative intent to authorize expeditious disposition of such relatively trivial matters.
The juvenile traffic hearing officer system was enacted by the Legislature in 1961 (Stats. 1961, ch. 1616, § 2, pp. 3467-3468; Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 255-258, 260-262, formerly §§ 561-567) in response to “[a] monumental processing problem [that] ha[d] been created because more than 100,000 *651traffic citations are issued annually to minors [, with the result that] juvenile courts have been forced to adopt various alternative methods for adjudicating such cases; otherwise traffic cases would overwhelm juvenile court calendars.” (Governor’s Special Study Com. on Juvenile Justice, pt. II—A Study of the Administration of Juvenile Justice in Cal. (1960) p. 29; see In re Kathy P. (1979) 25 Cal.3d 91, 99 & fn. 8 [157 Cal.Rptr. 874, 599 P.2d 65].)
There is no question that under California Constitution, article I, section 15, and Penal Code section 686, the right to court-appointed counsel is guaranteed to indigent defendants in all misdemeanor cases. (In re Kathy P., supra, 25 Cal.3d 91, 103; Tracy v. Municipal Court (1978) 22 Cal.3d 760, 766 [150 Cal.Rptr. 785, 587 P.2d 227]; Mills v. Municipal Court (1973) 10 Cal.3d 288, 301 [110 Cal.Rptr. 329, 515 P.2d 273]; In re Lopez (1970) 2 Cal.3d 141, 146 [84 Cal.Rptr. 361, 465 P.2d 257]; In re Johnson (1965) 62 Cal.2d 325, 329 [42 Cal.Rptr. 228, 398 P.2d 420].) This right attaches in all misdemeanor proceedings, even where the offense may be characterized as “petty” or “minor” (Tracy v. Municipal Court, supra, 22 Cal.3d at p. 763 [possession of less than one ounce of marijuana; maximum fine $100]; Blake v. Municipal Court (1966) 242 Cal.App.2d 731, 735 [51 Cal.Rptr. 771] [speeding ticket; maximum punishment $50 fine or five days in jail]), and even where imprisonment is not a possible punishment for the offense (see, Tracy v. Municipal Court, supra, 22 Cal.3d at p. 766; see also, Mills v. Municipal Court, supra, 10 Cal.3d at p. 301). In infraction proceedings, by contrast, the right to court-appointed counsel is denied by statute. (Pen. Code, § 19c; see Mills v. Municipal Court, supra, 10 Cal.3d at p. 302, fn. 13.)
The minor here asserts, and the Attorney General concedes, that indigent juveniles charged with misdemeanor traffic offenses are entitled to the assistance of court-appointed counsel. The minor further asserts that he could not be deprived of his right to court-appointed counsel based on the forum selected—here, juvenile traffic court. He relies on In re Lopez, supra, 2 Cal.3d at pages 145-146, and In re Johnson, supra, 62 Cal.2d at page 329, in which we held that the right to court-appointed counsel is equally guaranteed to misdemeanor defendants in “inferior courts.”
The minor is correct that the nature of juvenile traffic court as an “inferior court” does not insulate it from the requirement that court-appointed counsel be available to indigents accused of misdemeanors. However, in neither of the “inferior court” cases relied on by the minor was the defendant given the option of proceeding in a different forum in which court-appointed counsel was available. The present case is therefore distinguishable from Lopez and Johnson in that the minor here was not deprived of his right to counsel, *652but was simply required to exercise it in another forum. By framing the choice to proceed in one forum rather than another the county did not deprive the minor of his constitutional right to counsel.
A similar channeling of the right to counsel occurs in the civil context in small claims court, in which attorneys are barred by statute from taking “any part in the filing or the prosecution or defense” of a case in that court. (Code Civ. Proc., § 117.4.) When this statutory bar was challenged on the ground that the denial of counsel violated due process, the court in Prudential Ins. Co. v. Small Claims Court (1946) 76 Cal.App.2d 379 [173 P.2d 38], responded: “There can be little doubt but that in both civil and criminal cases the right to a hearing includes the right to appear by counsel, and that the arbitrary refusal of such right constitutes a deprivation of due process. [Citations.] But that does not mean that the Legislature cannot create a small claims court where informal hearings may be held without the assistance of counsel, as long as the right to appear by counsel is guaranteed in a real sense somewhere in the proceeding. It is obvious that the plaintiff cannot object, although he has no right of appeal, because he has elected to commence the action in the small claims court. If he desires an attorney he can sue, even on these small claims, in the justices or municipal courts. The defendant has no legal cause for complaint because if he is dissatisfied with the judgment of the small claims court he has a right of appeal to the superior court where he is entitled to a trial de novo. [Citations.] In that court he and the plaintiff can, of course, appear by counsel. This satisfies the due process requirement.” (Id. at p. 382; accord, Brooks v. Small Claims Court (1973) 8 Cal.3d 661, 665-666 [105 Cal.Rptr. 785, 504 P.2d 1249].)
Similarly in the context of juvenile traffic court, the minor was given the choice of proceeding in an informal forum without court-appointed counsel, or in a more formal forum where counsel would be appointed to represent him.
We should not ignore the county’s interest in maintaining an informal forum for swift and inexpensive disposition of the massive numbers of juvenile traffic cases that confront the court system each year. The purpose of the statutory scheme creating the juvenile traffic hearing officer system was, in fact, to promote a “uniform and expeditious method of handling traffic cases in juvenile, court” by providing for the handling of “all but the most serious juvenile traffic violations in juvenile court and for the processing of such cases on the basis of citations rather than the filing of juvenile court petitions.” (In re Conley (1966) 244 Cal.App.2d 755, 761 [53 Cal.Rptr. 321].) As we noted in In re Kathy P., ‘“the prosecution, the court system, and ultimately the public benefit because judicial and law enforcement resources are freed to concentrate on serious criminal behav*653ior.’ ” (25 Cal.3d at p. 99, quoting In re Dennis B. (1976) 18 Cal.3d 687, 695 [135 Cal.Rptr. 82, 557 P.2d 514].)
We have allowed for reasonable flexibility in the manner in which misdemeanant accuseds are advised of their right to counsel. For instance, rather than requiring each defendant to be individually informed of his right to court-appointed counsel, we have approved a procedure in which the trial judge “collectively advises all defendants in the courtroom of their constitutional rights, and then prefaces the arraignment of each defendant with an inquiry to ensure that the defendant heard and understood the general statement.” (Mills v. Municipal Court, supra, 10 Cal.3d at p. 307, citing In re Johnson, supra, 62 Cal.2d at pp. 332-333 & fn. 5.) In Johnson we explained the need for flexibility in the handling of misdemeanor traffic offenses: “While there can be no impairment of the fundamental constitutional rights of any defendant, however minor his crime, in certain situations there may be a choice of valid ways to implement these rights. Where such is the case—and constitutional rights are respected—the convenience of the parties and the court should be given considerable weight. . . . Compliance with the spirit of the constitutional mandate that an intelligent waiver of counsel must affirmatively appear in the record may be efficiently achieved in such cases in a variety of acceptable ways.” (In re Johnson, supra, 62 Cal.2d at p. 336; accord, Mills v. Municipal Court, supra, 10 Cal.3d at p. 303.)
Likewise, in the present context there may be a choice of valid ways to implement the right to counsel in juvenile traffic cases. Merced County has complied with the spirit of the constitutional mandate by offering court-appointed counsel to indigent minors in juvenile court, though not in juvenile traffic court, and allowing them to transfer between the two forums in order to obtain assistance of counsel.
I would reverse the judgment, thus restoring the 1981 charge to which Kevin pleaded guilty.