Court Opinion

ID: 9751657
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:44:18.774629+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:54.596802
License: Public Domain

JOHNSON, J.
I respectfully dissent. In this petition for writ of mandate we were asked to decide whether rule 185.5 of the California Rules of Court requires the appellate department of the superior court to presume a misdemeanor appellant is indigent if he was found indigent and represented by appointed counsel in the trial court for purposes of appointing counsel. While I agree with the majority as to the nature of the presumption rule 185.51 creates, I regard the appellate department’s local rule or practice requiring defendants to submit a new affidavit of indigency to be inconsistent with that presumption. This local rule or practice actually shifts the burden of production of evidence to the party in whose favor the presumption runs under rule 185.5. Since the local rule or practice violates rule 185.5,1 would issue a writ directing the appellate department to appoint counsel for petitioner for his appeal.
To explain why I reach this conclusion requires some exploration into the background of rule 185.5 and the presumption it creates. This rule became effective on July 1, 1991.2 The history of this new rule reveals its purpose is to ensure timely appointment of counsel to indigent misdemeanor appellants. *1193(AOC News Release, No. 91, Dec. 10, 1990.) The process for indigent misdemeanor defendants on appeal needed to be expedited so as not to delay the proceedings unnecessarily. The objective of rule 185.5 was for a statewide rule to establish uniform practices for timely appointment of counsel in appeals to superior court appellate departments. (See Judicial Council of C¿., AOC Rep. Summary, Apr. 12, 1991, p. 7.)
The rule was adopted as part of the “delay reduction program” for the California court system for the express purpose of expediting misdemeanor appeals. (Ringuette, Humboldt’s Formula for Delay Reduction Is Simple, Effective, Court News (Feb./Mar. 1991) 1.) Accordingly, the adoption of rule 185.5 advances the “delay reduction program” with respect to indigent misdemeanor appeals.
Rule 185.5 establishes two methods for indigent misdemeanor appellants to secure appointed counsel on appeal. Misdemeanor appellants deemed indigent and represented by appointed counsel at trial comprise the first category. The second category consists of all other misdemeanor defendants who wish appointed counsel on appeal and who were not represented by appointed counsel at trial. (Rule 185.5(a).)
Defendants in the second category must establish their indigency for the first time with the appellate department. As stated in rule 185.5, these defendants must submit evidence of indigency which meets the acceptable standards of indigency required by the Court of Appeal for the district where the superior court is located. (Rule 185.5(b).) In order to comply, the defendant generally is required to complete a financial statement detailing the applicant’s income and expenses. From this information the appellate department makes its determination whether the defendant is indigent and therefore whether the defendant has a right to appointed counsel on appeal. The court may take a reasonable amount of time to confirm the facts stated in the application in order to verify the defendant’s indigency. (Rule 185.5 (b).)
However, for the other category of appellants—those who were represented at trial by appointed counsel—rule 185.5 creates an entirely different, abbreviated process for determining indigency on appeal. The rule instructs *1194the court to presume indigency for this second category of defendants. (Rule 185.5(a).) These defendants must also file an application for appointed counsel with the appellate department. The application, however, need only declare defendant’s indigency under penalty of perjury. This declaration must be supported with evidence the defendant was represented by appointed counsel in the trial court. (Rule 185.5(b).)
The rule also authorizes the appellate department to confirm the facts stated in the application for those defendants already represented by appointed counsel at trial. (Rule 185.5.) However, under these circumstances, the court is only to confirm the fact the defendant was represented at trial by appointed counsel. Once this fact is confirmed, the defendant is presumed to be indigent and is entitled to appointment of counsel on appeal. Because this fact is easily confirmed by checking the municipal court documents included in the file, this method eliminates the need for the appellate department to make any additional inquiry as to the appellant’s financial status and expedites the review process for misdemeanor appellants.
Although it is possible to construe the presumption of indigency stated in rule 185.5 as a conclusive presumption, at a minimum it is what my colleagues found it to be—a presumption affecting the burden of production of evidence. In the absence of clear history evidencing an intent to create a conclusive presumption, I consider this a sound interpretation of the rule. However, I differ with the majority opinion over the meaning of a presumption affecting the burden of producing evidence.
If a presumption running in defendant’s favor on the burden of producing evidence means anything, it means someone else must come forward with contrary evidence first before the defendant must produce any proof on the question of his indigency. In other words, where a defendant has been found indigent and represented by appointed counsel at the trial level, the presumption of indigency will prevail unless and until contrary evidence is presented to the appellate court by someone other than the defendant. (Evid. Code, § 604.)3 For instance, if the prosecutor or any other third party submitted evidence a defendant now had the ability to pay that evidence could rebut the *1195presumption of indigency and require appellant to produce independent evidence proving his indigency at the time of the appeal. In the absence of any evidence from another party suggesting nonindigency, however, the appellate department is required to grant defendant the same right on appeal. (See Judicial Council of Cal., AOC Rep. Summary, Apr. 12, 1991, p. 9.)
In the present case, petitioner was declared indigent at the trial level and was represented by the public defender. Therefore under this rule, Hernandez was only required to declare his indigency and show evidence of representation by the public defender at trial in order to be entitled to appointed counsel on appeal. The appellate department’s “informal rule” requiring appellant and similarly situated defendants to submit affidavits detailing their financial circumstances is inconsistent with rule 185.5. This “informal rule” disregards the presumption created in rule 185.5 by requiring appellants, like petitioner, to produce evidence demonstrating the indigency they already had established through affidavits submitted to the trial court. As a consequence, this local practice violates the specific language and entirely defeats the purpose of the statewide rule. Therefore, in my view, the appellate department’s “informal rule” is invalid. (Mann v. Cracchiolo (1985) 38 Cal.3d 18, 29 [210 Cal.Rptr. 762, 694 P.2d 1134] [local court rules may have force of law only in the absence of legislative direction to the contrary]; Laborers’ Internat. Union of North America v. El Dorado Landscape Co. (1989) 208 Cal.App.3d 993, 1002 [256 Cal.Rptr. 632] [Legislature properly delegated authority to Judicial Council to implement statewide rules to implement Trial Court Delay and Reduction Act].)
Redundant inquiries and determinations only serve to backlog the court system and waste judicial resources. If a lower court has recently deemed a defendant to be indigent, one may conclude a new inquiry into the defendant’s indigency only a few days later to be a time consuming and virtually useless endeavor. In a judicial environment of crushing case loads, any rule which saves the court from any unnecessary inquiries is a rule which should be implemented and utilized consistently. This is especially true when this rule strengthens and improves the administration of an overworked justice system. The rule’s presumption of indigency for misdemeanor appellants represented by appointed counsel at trial expedites judicial administration and ensures uniformity and consistency in the treatment of misdemeanor appellants.
*1196Because petitioner was deemed indigent at trial and filed an application with the appellate department declaring his indigency and providing proof he had appointed counsel at trial, he is entitled to the presumption created under rule 185.5. In the absence of third party evidence suggesting defendant was not indigent at the time of appeal, the appellate department violated that statewide rule when it ignored the presumption under rule 185.5 and required defendant to submit a new affidavit of indigency. Accordingly, there is no evidence properly before the appellate department contradicting the earlier finding of indigency and pursuant to rule 185.5 petitioner is entitled to appointment of counsel on appeal.4
For these reasons, I would issue the peremptory writ directing the appellate department to appoint counsel for petitioner and to refrain from requiring future appellants who were represented by appointed counsel at trial to submit affidavits of indigency at the appellate stage (unless third party evidence suggests an appellant is not indigent at the time of the appeal.)
A petition for a rehearing was denied September 29,1992, and petitioner’s application for review by the Supreme Court was denied December 30, 1992. Kennard, J., was of the opinion that the application should be granted.

All references to rules are to the California Rules of Court.

The text of California Rules of Court, rule 185.5 states:
“(a) [Standards for appointment] On application of an indigent defendant-appellant, the appellate department shall appoint counsel on appeal for a defendant convicted of a misdemeanor who is subject to incarceration or a fine of more than $250 (including penalty and other assessments), or who is likely to suffer significant adverse collateral consequences as a result of the conviction. A defendant is ‘subject to’ incarceration or a fine if the incarceration or fine is in a sentence, or is a condition of probation, or may be ordered if the defendant violates probation. The court may appoint counsel on appeal for other indigent defendants. A defendant who was represented by appointed counsel in the trial court is presumed to be indigent-, other defendants may establish their indigency as in the Courts of Appeal.
“(b) [Application; duty of trial counsel] If defense trial counsel believes that the client is indigent and will file an appeal, counsel shall prepare for the defendant’s signature and file in the trial court an application to the appellate department for appointment of counsel. The application shall include a declaration of indigency supported by evidence of representation in the trial court by appointed counsel or by evidence of indigency in the form required by the *1193Court of Appeal for the district where the court is located. The trial court clerk shall transmit the application to the appellate department along with the record on appeal. A defendant-appellant may, however, apply directly to the appellate department for appointment of counsel after the record on appeal is filed.
“The appellate department may take a reasonable time to reconfirm that the defendant-appellant still seeks appointment of counsel or to confirm the facts stated in the application.” (Italics added.)

According to Witkin, presumptions affecting the burden of producing evidence are “ ‘expressions of experience,’ designed to dispense with unnecessary proof. ‘Typically, such presumptions are based on an underlying logical inference. In some cases, the presumed fact is so likely to be true and so little likely to be disputed that the law requires it to be assumed in the absence of contrary evidence. In other cases, evidence of the nonexistence of the presumed fact, if there is any, is so much more readily available to the party against whom the presumption operates that he is not permitted to argue that the presumed fact does not exist unless he is willing to produce such evidence. In still other cases, there may be no direct evidence of the existence or nonexistence of the presumed fact; but, because the case must be *1195decided, the law requires a determination that the presumed fact exists in light of common experience indicating that it usually exists in such cases.’ ” (1 Witkin, Cal. Evidence (3d ed. 1986) Burden of Proof and Presumptions, § 176, p. 150, citing Cal. Law Revision Com. com., West Ann. Evid. Code, § 603, p. 563.) The presumption in rule 185.5 is of the first variety—a fact so likely to be true it is assumed unless some other party produces contrary evidence.

Of course should facts become known to the court after the appeal revealing the defendant in fact was financially able to retain private counsel at trial, on appeal, or both, all is not lost. There are statutory provisions to require reimbursement from those who can afford counsel. Upon conclusion of the proceedings, the court may hold a hearing on the defendant’s ability to pay in the event of a change in circumstances. (Pen. Code, § 987.8, subd. (b); Pen. Code, § 987.81, subd. (a).) Under these statutory provisions, if the court determines the defendant has the present ability to pay, the defendant will be required to pay all or a portion of the cost of legal assistance (if necessary, by monthly installments). (Ibid.)