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Laguna Hills is a small city wedged between two much larger neighbors — Interstate 5 forms the city's own eastern border, running between Lake Forest to the north and Mission Viejo to the south. The city has no police department of its own; like a dozen other South County cities, it contracts with the Orange County Sheriff's Department (OCSD) for policing, and its DUI cases are routed to the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach. If you were arrested anywhere in Laguna Hills — on El Toro Road, on I-5, or near Nellie Gail Ranch — Ron Chini defends the case from his Irvine office, and the 10-day clock on your DMV hearing is already running.
Where a Laguna Hills DUI case is heard
Laguna Hills DUI cases are heard at the Harbor Justice Center, 4601 Jamboree Road in Newport Beach. The Orange County Superior Court's own location page for that courthouse names Laguna Hills by name among the cities and unincorporated areas it serves, alongside Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, and several others in South County. The case is prosecuted by the Orange County District Attorney's Office — Laguna Hills' city attorney handles municipal matters, not criminal prosecution. A felony-level charge is the one exception: the court's page lists the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana as the venue for felony matters from every Orange County city, so an upgraded case could be assigned there instead.
Court & DMV details for Laguna Hills
Booked after a Laguna Hills DUI arrest
Laguna Hills has no city jail, so an arrest here typically ends with a transport to the Orange County Sheriff's Intake Release Center, 550 North Flower Street in Santa Ana — the county's central booking facility, with a bail cashier's window open 24 hours a day. From there, some arrestees are moved to another county facility while the case proceeds; custody status and transfer timing vary case by case, so a family member should call before driving anywhere.
Laguna Hills policing: an OCSD contract city hemmed in by I-5
Laguna Hills is one of roughly 13 Orange County cities that contracts with the Orange County Sheriff's Department for police services instead of running its own department. OCSD's own patrol-area page for the city names a Sheriff's captain, currently Captain William Burk, as Chief of Police Services for the City of Laguna Hills — a separate command from the stations serving neighboring Mission Viejo (run out of 200 Civic Center) and Lake Forest (run out of a Windrow Drive substation). Laguna Hills Police Services can be reached directly at 949-707-2640, with the Sheriff's non-emergency dispatch line as a backup. On the freeway, the picture changes: the California Highway Patrol handles DUI stops on Interstate 5, which doesn't just pass near Laguna Hills — it is the city's eastern boundary, separating it from Mission Viejo. Whether an OCSD deputy or a CHP officer made your stop changes who wrote the report, not which courthouse hears the case.
Was your car towed or impounded?
Most DUI-arrest tows are made under Vehicle Code §22651(h), which lets an officer have an unattended vehicle towed when its driver is taken into custody; the registered owner or an authorized agent can usually arrange release once the car reaches the tow yard, though storage fees start accruing immediately. That's different from Vehicle Code §14602.6, which applies only if you were driving on a suspended, revoked, or no valid license — that section authorizes a mandatory 30-day impound hold regardless of who owns the car. Check which code section the arresting agency cited on your paperwork; it determines how fast — and how — your vehicle can be released.
A small city between bigger names — what's actually in Laguna Hills
Laguna Hills has been its own city only since residents voted 86% in favor of incorporation and the city was formally seated on December 20, 1991. At about 6.6 square miles with roughly 31,000 residents, it's one of the smaller South County cities — and its shape says as much about its neighbors as about itself: I-5 is the city's eastern edge, Lake Forest sits to the north, Mission Viejo to the south and east across the freeway, and Laguna Woods — a separate, age-restricted retirement community, not part of Laguna Hills — borders it to the southwest. If your arrest happened near one of those boundaries, tell Ron Chini exactly where the stop occurred; it can affect which agency's report you're dealing with.
Inland from the freeway sits Nellie Gail Ranch, a roughly 1,350-acre gated equestrian community built on part of the old Moulton family ranchland and named for Nellie Gail Moulton. It has about 25 miles of horse trails and an equestrian center, and many of its homes are zoned to keep horses — a genuinely unusual land use this close to a freeway interchange, and one that doesn't exist in quite the same form in Mission Viejo or Lake Forest. If your stop happened on one of the Ranch's private roads or near its trail crossings, say so; private-community access can matter to how a stop gets described.
The city's best-known commercial landmark is also its most visible ongoing construction site: the former Laguna Hills Mall at 24155 Laguna Hills Mall, which opened in phases starting in 1973, closed for good at the end of 2018, and was fully demolished in 2023. The roughly 60-acre site — rebranded the Village at Laguna Hills after an earlier "Five Lagunas" name — has been approved for a mixed-use project with retail, a cinema, a hotel, office space, and apartments, but as of mid-2026 nothing new had actually been built there. If a traffic stop, a DUI checkpoint, or an arrest happened near that stretch of El Toro Road or Avenida de la Carlota, it's worth mentioning — the ongoing construction and detours in that corridor are specific to Laguna Hills right now, not to any neighboring city.
Where will my Laguna Hills DUI case be heard?
Is Laguna Hills the same as Laguna Woods or Laguna Niguel?
Does Laguna Hills have its own police department?
I was pulled over on I-5 at the Laguna Hills/Mission Viejo line — does that change anything?
What's my 10-day deadline if I was arrested in Laguna Hills?
Laguna Hills is one of about a dozen South Orange County cities routed to the Harbor Justice Center. For the full list of cities, courthouses, and how Orange County DUI cases are handled, visit our Orange County DUI Defense hub.
Ron defends DUI cases across Southern California from his Irvine office, in English and Farsi — and works directly with you, not a call center.
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