Courthouses: privilege from civil arrest

The law aims to keep people from being deterred from attending court or accessing court services by the risk of civil arrest. It creates financial liability for unlawful civil arrests and requires greater transparency around law-enforcement activity in courthouses.

What the law does ​

• Bars civil arrests of people traveling to, present at, or traveling from a courthouse for lawful activity, while preserving arrests under valid judicial warrants.
• Presumes that a person traveling to, from, or at a courthouse is engaged in lawful activity.
• Allows courts to issue orders protecting the privilege from civil arrest.
• Makes violators and those who assist them liable for false arrest or false imprisonment, with actual damages, $10,000 statutory damages, court costs, and reasonable attorney’s fees.
• Requires court security personnel to seek identification, the enforcement purpose, intended action, and a copy of a valid judicial warrant from law-enforcement representatives entering a courthouse.
• Requires the Judicial Council to annually publish county-level statistics on reported civil arrests.

Who it affects ​

• Court users, including litigants, witnesses, victims, observers, employees, and people assisting or accompanying them.
• Law-enforcement representatives and anyone assisting an unlawful civil arrest.
• Court security personnel, attorneys representing people named in warrants, and California courts.

Context ​

The protected courthouse area includes court facilities, surrounding streets and sidewalks, and public ways within 1,000 feet of court facilities.