As courts embarked on the transition to state funding, initiatives have been developed to support their efforts and to create the infrastructure for a unified approach to accounting, reporting, and other financial procedures:

• The Trial Court Financial Policies and Procedures Manual lays out basic financial policies and procedures.
• The Phoenix Project is composed of two major components: the Phoenix Financial System (formerly CARS) is the component that automates accounting functions.
• The application of the state appropriations limit (SAL) to the trial court budget process was first approved for use in fiscal year 2005-2006 and is bringing stability, predictability, and flexibility to trial court funding.
• In 2004, the Judicial Council began to address concerns about the rising costs of security in the trial courts and adopted court security standards to establish uniform statewide practices and enable courts to better predict security costs.

Fiscal Initiatives (PDF)

Phoenix Project (PDF)

State Appropriations Limit (SAL) (PDF)

Trial Court Financial Policies and Procedures Manual

Fact Sheet: Phoenix Project (PDF)

News Release: Judicial Council Takes Action on Budget Allocations for the Trial Courts (PDF)

News Release: Judicial Council Approves Uniform Standards for Court Security Funding (PDF)