Superior Court Judge · Superior Court of California, County of Tulare
What applies in this courtroom
71 verified requirements may apply in this courtroom, by layer: 0 published by Judge Sara Bratsch · 44 county-wide · 27 statewide — with 29 rule deadlines across those layers. Only the judge's own rules are specific to this courtroom; the other layers apply by court, county and state scope, and a court- or case-specific order can displace them.
The tabs below show the judge-and-division layer only. The Full Premium Report assembles the complete stack — every requirement, deadline table, ruling intelligence, live case-type scan, and source appendix in one cited document.
Your first 7 Judge Intelligence Reports are free with a free account — no payment card required.
Judge — Department 8, Criminal, North County Jurisdiction - Misdemeanor Complaints, Visalia - Civil, Criminal, & Family Law, Superior Court of California, County of Tulare
On this assignment since June 22, 2026
Official divisional instructions →Bratsch has been a Sole Practitioner since 2010. She was an Associate at Houk and Hornburg LLP from 2008 to 2010 and served as a Conflict Attorney at the Tulare County Conflict Defender’s Office from 2008 to 2009. Bratsch served both as a Deputy District Attorney and a Supervising Deputy District Attorney at the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office from 1997 to 2007. She served as a Law Clerk in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office Family Support Division from 1996 to 1997 Bratsch earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Thomas Jefferson
Published by the Office of the Governor of California in the release that announced this appointment and reproduced as whole sentences, none reworded — BenchPath does not write or paraphrase judicial biographies. The release's opening sentence (age and home town), its vacancy sentence, its party line and any family sentence are not reproduced. Read the appointment release →
Appeals in unlimited civil and felony cases from this courtroom go to the Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District.
● LiveThat court's published bench (10): Amy K. Guerra, Arlan L. Harrell, Bert Levy, Brad R. Hill, Donald R. Franson, Jr., Jennifer R.S. Detjen, Kathleen Meehan, Mark W. Snauffer, Sonny S. Sandhu, Thomas DeSantos
County-to-district assignment per Cal. Gov. Code § 69100(e). An appeal other than in a limited civil case, and an appeal in a felony case, goes to the Court of Appeal (Code Civ. Proc., § 904.1, subd. (a); Pen. Code, § 1235, subd. (b)); an appeal in a limited civil, misdemeanor or infraction case goes to the appellate division of the superior court (Code Civ. Proc., § 904.2; Pen. Code, § 1466).
Sara Bratsch, of Tulare County, has been appointed to serve as a Judge in the Tulare County Superior Court.
The appointing authority's record · checked October 19, 2026
This tab lists judge-and-division rules only, and this judge's division publishes its practice at the county, and statewide layers instead — 71 verified requirements may apply across those layers. The Full Premium Report assembles every one of them, cited.
See all 71 in the Full Premium Report →No other published judge currently sits in this judge's divisions, so there is no peer set to diff — the divisional requirements below ARE the division's practice.
No judge-level deadline on record runs shorter than a statewide deadline with the same trigger. The sentinel compares quoted timing across every published rule scoped to this judge on each visit — a clean result today is re-earned tomorrow.
No judge-scoped deadlines on this tab. Deadlines are extracted only when the source rule text states them — we never infer or calculate dates the rule does not explicitly contain. 29 rule deadlines apply in this courtroom across all layers — assembled with citations in the Full Premium Report.
Timing shown here is quoted from the rule text. Compute your actual date against the court's calendar and the rule itself — not legal advice.
No verified ruling summary yet. BenchPath generates ruling summaries from opinion and docket corpora (CourtListener where covered) and publishes them only after human review — fabricated judicial analytics are exactly what this platform refuses to ship.
The attributed-opinion corpus holds California's appellate opinions as the Judicial Council posts them, from the listings BenchPath has read since October 2026 (each reaches back 120 days for published opinions and 60 for unpublished ones). The First, Third and Sixth Districts' unpublished opinions do not name the trial judge, so a ruling reviewed there is not attributed. Absence here is a coverage statement, never evidence about this judge.
Use the live case-law search below to see what exists for this judge today.
Answer three quick questions. The platform pulls Sara Bratsch's full public case-law record from the source, newest first — your matter never narrows the pull; it directs the relevance ranking and the dual-AI analysis. Every hit comes back Bluebook-cited with the opinion's own words quoted verbatim. The scan takes the time precision takes.
Case-law search
CourtListener · free connector · liveCoverage note: CourtListener is strongest for federal courts and state appellate courts. California superior-court opinions are sparsely represented — an absence of results is a coverage gap, not evidence about this judge.
No rule-level sources registered yet — judge-level provenance is listed in the Overview tab.
Research connectors
CourtListener
● liveFree Law Project
Free. Opinions, dockets, RECAP, judge metadata. Powering the case-law search on this page.
Westlaw
○ bring your licenseThomson Reuters
Bring your firm's license — enterprise connector queries your judge and related cases inside Westlaw. Phase 2.
LexisNexis
○ bring your licenseRELX
Bring your firm's license — enterprise connector for Lexis+ research tied to your matter. Phase 2.
BenchPath never scrapes licensed databases. Westlaw and LexisNexis connect only through your firm's own credentials and entitlements when the enterprise connectors ship.
Judge — Department 8, Criminal, North County Jurisdiction - Misdemeanor Complaints, Visalia - Civil, Criminal, & Family Law, Superior Court of California, County of Tularecurrent
June 22, 2026 — present
assignment source →No source changes detected for this judge yet — when the underlying court pages move, it shows up here first.