California Courts of Appeal

The California Courts of Appeal are the intermediate appellate court system of the U.S. state of California. The state is divided along county lines into six appellate districts, and the courts review appeals from the Superior Courts, with any further appeal going to the Supreme Court of California. They are the largest state-level intermediate appellate system in the United States, with 106 justices. Voters created them by constitutional amendment on 8 November 1904 to relieve an overloaded state Supreme Court, starting with three districts headquartered in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacramento. Published opinions bind every trial court in the state, though there is no horizontal stare decisis between divisions or panels, and most opinions are not published.