Hawaii attorney and Republican activist Richard R. Clifton was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on July 18 by a vote of 98-0 to succeed Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall, who took senior status Aug. 31, 1997. He is expected to be sworn in next month and to begin hearing cases in the fall.

There remain four vacancies on the court, the most recent being a result of Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez taking senior status June 1.

President Bush on May 23 nominated Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, a former law professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, to fill the vacancy created when Judge Procter Hug Jr. took senior status Jan. 1. Bybee is Bush's third nominee for the court.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn B. Kuhl was tapped by Bush last year to succeed the late Judge Charles E. Wiggins, who took senior status Dec. 31, 1996. Kuhl has not received a confirmation hearing, reportedly because Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer will not sign a "blue slip." Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has declined to schedule confirmation hearings for judicial nominees without the approval of both senators from a nominee's home state.

Kuhl, 48, is a six-year veteran of the Superior Court bench. She previously served in the U.S. Department of Justice as a special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith, and worked in the office of the solicitor general during the Reagan administration.

She clerked for Anthony J. Kennedy, then a Ninth Circuit judge, after graduation from Duke University School of Law.

Judge James Browning took senior status Sept. 1 of last year. There has been no nomination for his seat.

President Clinton's nominees for the Hall and Wiggins seats, attorneys Joseph Duffy Jr. of Honolulu and Barry Goode of San Francisco, never received confirmation hearings. Goode now serves as legal affairs secretary to Gov. Gray Davis.

President Bush said on July 18 that he would nominate Los Angeles Superior Court Judges S. James Otero and Gary Klausner to fill two of the four vacancies on the court.

There are no vacancies.

There is one vacancy in newly created Div. Eight. The names of Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Charles Lee, Richard Rico, and Aurelio Munoz have been sent to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation as potential appointees to the post.

Fourth District

Divs. One and Div. Two each have a vacancy created by SB 1857, which took effect Jan. 1 of last year. Div. Three has a vacancy created by the June 1, 2001, retirement of Justice Thomas Crosby.

Sixth District

Presiding Justice Christopher Cottle retired Aug. 31 of last year. Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian is the acting presiding justice.

Seats in other districts are filled.

Judge Theodore D. Piatt retires today, bringing the number of vacancies to 18.

Piatt's is the 13th vacancy created this year.

Judge Juleann Cathey was granted disability retirement at the end of last month. Judge Thomas Simpson retired July 1, Judge Leslie Light retired June 1, Judge Debra Yang resigned May 10 to become U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, Judge Ann Kough retired May 15, Judge J.D. Smith retired April 4, Judge James Albracht retired April 6, Judge Jerold Krieger died Feb. 15, Judges Michael Pirosh and John Gunn retired in February, and Judges David Finkel and Elvira Austin retired in January.

Three judges who retired last year have not been replaced. Richard Charvat left office Nov. 5, James Simpson-retired for disability-Dec. 10, and Harold Shabo Dec. 31.

Two judges who were elevated last year to the Court of Appeal have also not been replaced-Paul Boland, who became a justice on Nov. 21, and Judith Ashmann-Gerst, confirmed on Dec. 7.

Further vacancies are scheduled with the retirements of Judges David Horowitz and Robert Letteau Sept. 4 and William Garner Sept. 24.

The court is without the services of Judge Robert Sandoval, who is expected to return soon following treatment for liver cancer. Judge Pamela Rogers, who had neck surgery last October; Judge Richard Rico, assigned to the Court of Appeal through Aug. 20; and Judge Aurelio Munoz, whose Court of Appeal assignment has been extended through Aug. 31.

Retired Judge Lillian Stevens is filling in for Sandoval in Burbank.

A runoff election is underway to select a successor to Commissioner Ernest Lopez, who retired June 24. Balloting between Sherman Oaks practitioner Michael Convey and Superior Court Referee Guillermina Gutierrez Byrne is to be completed next month.

The following legislation was acted upon by the Legislature in late June or in July:

•AB 1703, by Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, which clarifies that the 10 percent requirement used to determine the minimum number of hours of pro bono legal services a law firm contracting with the state is asked to make a good-faith effort to provide means the number of hours equal to 10 percent of the contract amount divided by the average billing rate of the firm. The bill was signed by the governor July 10.

•AB 2033, by Assemblyman Robert Pacheco, R-City of Industry, which expands the law allowing nonerasable optical image reproduction of a writing to be introduced in court as proof of a writing. The bill would be operative on the date the secretary of state adopts uniform standards for storing and recording documents in electronic media. The bill was signed by the governor July 9.

•AB 2106, by Assemblyman Russ Bogh, R-Yucaipa, which provides that when multiple criminal offenses occur in more than one jurisdictional territory, and the offenses are part of a single scheme or terrorist attack, the jurisdiction of any of those offenses is in any jurisdiction where at least one of those offenses occurred. The bill was signed by the governor June 20.

•ACA 15 , by Assemblyman Howard Wayne, D-San Diego, a proposed constitutional amendment to delete obsolete references to the municipal courts from the California Constitution, was chaptered June 27 and will go before the voters on the November ballot.

•SB 1316, by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would make numerous changes in the law to account for the abolition of the municipal courts. The bill was amended July 10 to add more sections of law that should be amended or repealed, and was referred to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

•SB 1559, by Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, which extends indefinitely a statute which allows minors under the age of 13 to testify via closed-circuit television in cases in which the minor is a victim of a sex crime or violent felony. The bill was signed by the governor June 28.

•SB 1897, by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, which would provide that the chief trial counsel of the State Bar shall serve under the Regulation, Admission, and Discipline Oversight Committee of the State Bar Board of Governors. A technical amendment was made to the bill July 25, and the measure was referred to the Assembly floor.