California Just Made It So Survivors Testify in One Courtroom, Not Several

Reviewed by Heard & Believed · Updated 2026-07-28

A new California law lets prosecutors combine sexual-offense cases that span multiple counties into a single trial, so survivors no longer have to relive their testimony county by county. If a case in your life has ever dragged on through more than one court, here's why that detail matters more than it sounds.

What actually changed

Assemblymember Pilar Schiavo's bill, AB 2147, addresses a narrow but consequential gap: when someone commits sexual offenses in more than one county, prosecutors previously had to build a separate case in each jurisdiction where a crime occurred. That meant separate filings, separate hearings, and in some cases separate trials, even when every charge traced back to the same person and the same pattern.

Under the new law, district attorneys in the counties involved can agree to consolidate those charges into a single case in one county. Cases can move faster, and prosecutors can present the fuller pattern of someone's conduct to one jury instead of splitting the story across several.

Why the old system wore survivors down

Court dates are stressful under the best of circumstances. Multiplying them across county lines added a logistical and emotional toll on top of everything else: separate travel, separate preparation with separate attorneys, and separate rounds of sitting across a room from the person who hurt you, telling the same story again for a different set of strangers.

Research on trauma and the justice system consistently finds that survivors' wellbeing is shaped as much by how a case is handled as by its outcome. Repeated exposure to the same painful material, on someone else's schedule, is its own kind of burden, separate from the underlying assault itself.

What this doesn't change

It's worth being precise about what AB 2147 is and isn't. It doesn't create a new crime, extend any deadline, or guarantee a particular case gets prosecuted at all; district attorneys still decide whether and how to bring charges, and consolidation still requires their agreement across counties. It also doesn't take effect until January 1, 2027, so it has no bearing on cases moving through courts right now.

What it does is remove one procedural reason a survivor might have to testify more than once about the same abuser. That's a small-sounding change with an outsized effect on the people who would otherwise be living it.

• It applies to a pattern of certain sexual offenses committed across county lines by the same person.
• Prosecuting counties have to agree to combine the case; it isn't automatic.
• It changes where and how a case can be tried, not whether abuse gets reported or believed.
• It takes effect January 1, 2027.

If this kind of news brings something up for you

You don't need to have a case in the system, or ever plan to, for a headline like this to land somewhere. Reading about legal reforms can surface old frustration with how slowly or unevenly a process moved for you, or relief that something is finally shifting for people going through it now. Both reactions are normal, and neither one is a test.

If you're currently in the middle of a legal process yourself, across one county or several, it's fair to feel exhausted by it regardless of what any new law changes. That exhaustion doesn't say anything about how strong your case is or how much you deserve support.

What to remember if a multi-county case touches your life

Whether you're watching a case from a distance or living through one, a few things are worth holding onto.

1. Consolidation isn't automatic: Prosecutors in each county have to agree to combine charges; it doesn't happen in every eligible case.
2. The law looks forward, not back: It applies once it takes effect on January 1, 2027, and doesn't reopen or change cases already decided.
3. Fewer courtrooms can mean fewer retellings: The intent is to reduce how many times a survivor has to repeat their testimony for the same underlying conduct.
4. It doesn't decide guilt or innocence: It's a jurisdiction rule; the facts of any case still have to be proven the same way they always did.
5. You can feel however you feel about it: Relief, skepticism, indifference, or something in between are all reasonable reactions to a procedural law.
6. Support isn't tied to any bill: The RAINN hotline (800-656-4673) is available whether or not a law like this ever touches your situation.

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• National Forensic Interviewers Week: Why How a Child Is Asked Matters as Much as What Happened