The United States Judicial Conference has authorized the appointment of full-time United States Magistrate Judges for the Central District of California, beginning in November, 2015. The United States District Court for the Central District of California is authorized to hold court in Los Angeles, Riverside and Santa Ana. The District Court may assign a Magistrate Judge to hold court in any of these locations and may reassign a Magistrate Judge from one location in the District to another as workload may require.

A Merit Selection Panel, comprised of attorneys and other members of the community, will review all applications and recommend to the Judges, in confidence, those persons it considers best qualified. All applications are kept confidential, unless the applicant consents to disclosure, and all applications are examined only by members of the Merit Selection Panel and Judges of the Court. The Panel’s deliberations remain confidential. Appointments are subject to District Court review and approval of FBI full-field investigation and IRS tax checks.

A full range of benefits is offered including, but not limited to, the Judicial Retirement System and health, life, disability, and long-term care insurance. The term of office is eight years. Magistrate Judges may be reappointed to subsequent eight-year terms.
Duties of the position are demanding and wide-ranging. Magistrate Judges conduct pretrial proceedings in civil and criminal cases, including law and motion matters, settlement conferences, initial appearances, and bail hearings. Magistrate Judges also preside over jury and court trials in civil cases with the consent of the parties, as well as trials and dispositions of misdemeanor cases. These duties are more fully set forth in Central District General Orders 05-07 and 06-01, available on the Court’s website at: www.cacd.uscourts.gov. Basic jurisdiction of United States Magistrate Judges is specified in 28 U.S.C. § 636.

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