Scheduling a Court date in San Bernardino County

In the good old days one could simply walk down to your local court house and add your case on calendar to either recall a warrant, advance your court date, modify your probation or ask the Judge to lower your fines.  Now, San Bernardino, Riverside and many other counties are trying to reduce the amount of  “walk in” cases so that the courts are not filled with last minute appearances and endless people.  The problem was that the system was overloaded with long lines and many people who were walking their case to see a Judge did not need to see a Judge at all.

Welcome to the 21st Century.  With so many online systems and access to the court dockets and rules, both San Bernardino and Riverside Counties have gone to scheduling court dates online.  While is may not be convenient for those non-technical individuals or others who do not have online access, it is like losing your old wire antenna from your TV and going digital, it had to happen.

Specifically in San Bernardino County, if you want to MODIFY or CHANGE something about your court case and there is NO WARRANT, you must go online and schedule that with the courts at http://www.sb-court.org/.   Remember if you want to alter payments or payment plans, you can go to the clerks window before your first payment to do this without going back to court.

If you have a WARRANT for failing to appear on a misdemeanor or felony case, you can still go into the court and walk your case on and see a judge that day.  However, if you want to see a Judge to modify the date that you report for a work release program or make a fine payment for instance, you must schedule that date well in advance or else a warrant will issue.  The days of going in on the 11th to reschedule your jail sentence ordered for the 12th is over!  You must know that scheduling a date can be a short as a week and as long as a month.  You should also note that in some courts like Victorville and San Bernardino, you must get yourself on calendar by 8:00 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. depending on the court and  you will be heard by 1:30, but in other courts like Rancho Cucamonga, you are heard immediately or at least by 9:30 or 10 a.m. depending on the court room assignment.

Lastly, just because you failed to appear on a traffic matter, it does not mean that you have a warrant allowing you a same day appearance.  You may only have a HOLD on your license (FTA) – failure to appear.  In this situation, you must still schedule a hearing online.

Remember that since the courts are going high tech with online scheduling, they are trying save money and time so it is harder to speak to a live person at the courthouse, even with reduced crowds.  If you call the Riverside and San Bernardino Courts you will be placed on hold and eventually talk with a court clerk, speaking to a clerk in Los Angles County is virtually non-existent.