A Riverside County felony or misdemeanor case is filed at one of five courthouses, chosen by the zip code where the crime allegedly occurred. Local Rule 4001 sets that rule, and a presiding judge’s administrative order lists the cities and communities that go to each courthouse. Once a case is filed, its case-number prefix usually confirms the courthouse, but the court’s prefix guide has no entry for the Hall of Justice in Riverside, so rely on your paperwork for a Riverside-area case. (Riverside Superior Court Local Rules, Title 4; Administrative Order, Where to File Criminal and Traffic Documents, effective May 5, 2022; both fetched September 24, 2026.)

The court’s city-by-courthouse list

The order sorts the five criminal courthouses into three regions:

  • Hall of Justice, 4100 Main Street, Riverside (Western Region): Riverside, Corona, Eastvale, Jurupa Valley, Moreno Valley, Norco, and Perris, plus communities such as Mead Valley, Lake Mathews, Woodcrest, and Nuevo.
  • Banning Justice Center (Western Region): Banning, Beaumont, Calimesa, Hemet, and San Jacinto, plus communities such as Cabazon, Cherry Valley, Valle Vista, and Mountain Center.
  • Southwest Justice Center, Murrieta (Mid-County Region): Murrieta, Temecula, Lake Elsinore, Menifee, Wildomar, and Canyon Lake, plus communities such as Sun City, French Valley, Winchester, Anza, and Idyllwild.
  • Larson Justice Center, Indio (Desert Region): Indio, Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Coachella, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Palm Desert, and Rancho Mirage, plus communities such as Thermal, Mecca, Bermuda Dunes, and Thousand Palms.
  • Blythe Courthouse (Desert Region): Blythe and nearby communities such as Ripley and East Blythe.

(Administrative Order.)

Where the map surprises people

  • Hemet and San Jacinto felonies and misdemeanors go to Banning. The same order sends infraction tickets from those two cities to the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta, so a traffic ticket and a misdemeanor from one address can be heard in different buildings. Unincorporated East Hemet, by contrast, is on the Murrieta list for felonies and misdemeanors.
  • Several cities with a courthouse send their criminal cases elsewhere. Felonies and misdemeanors from Corona and Moreno Valley go to the Hall of Justice, and Palm Springs cases go to Indio.
  • Some highway citations follow their own rule. The California Highway Patrol’s Temecula station has an exception to keep citing violations on Highway 74 through Perris, the 215 through Perris and Menifee, and Highway 79 through Domenigoni Parkway to the Southwest Justice Center.

Under Local Rule 4001, a case is usually heard in the courthouse where it was filed or another courthouse in the same region, though it can be assigned to another region for good cause, and later papers go to the same courthouse unless the case is transferred. Habeas corpus petitions are filed by region: the Hall of Justice for the Western Region, the Southwest Justice Center for Mid-County, and the Larson Justice Center for the Desert Region. (Local Rule 4001; Administrative Order.)

How to read your case number

The court’s reference guide ties case-number prefixes to courthouses. For felony and misdemeanor cases it lists:

  • BAM (misdemeanor) and BAF (felony) at the Banning courthouse.
  • BLM (misdemeanor) and BLF (felony) at the Blythe courthouse.
  • INM (misdemeanor) and INF (felony) at the Indio, Larson Justice Center.
  • SWM (misdemeanor) and SWF (felony) at the Murrieta, Southwest Justice Center.

The guide has no felony or misdemeanor prefix for the Hall of Justice, and it shows Corona, Moreno Valley, Palm Springs, and the Riverside Historic Courthouse only for civil, unlawful detainer, small claims, probate, or guardianship cases. An infraction’s case number is the same as its citation number. The guide names a branch, not a courtroom or a hearing date, and it is a point-in-time document (revised July 7, 2024); where your citation, notice to appear, or court notice says something different, follow that paperwork. (Reference Guide: Where Cases Are Pending.)

Practical steps

  • Start with the courthouse printed on your citation or notice to appear. Local Rule 4040, which governs putting a case with an outstanding warrant back on calendar, says an initial arraignment is heard where the defendant was cited or ordered to appear, and a person with open cases at several locations may appear at any location that has one of them.
  • If you have no paperwork yet, look up the city or community where the incident happened on the order’s list, not the one where you live.
  • If your paperwork, the order, and the prefix guide do not line up, confirm the branch with the clerk’s office or your attorney before you travel.

For the charge itself, see the Law Offices of David S. Chesley’s Riverside County criminal defense page. To confirm a specific branch, department, or hearing date, call (800) 755-5174.