What does an Orange County Superior Court judge do?

Superior Court judges oversee trials across all of Orange County. There are more than 100 of them across the court system. These trials cover everything having to do with state and local laws, including family law (such as child custody and divorces), contract disputes, thefts, felony murder, probate (distributing a person’s possessions after they die) and small claims.

A judge’s job is to act as court referee:

• making sure all sides are abiding by the proper rules
• hearing arguments
• handing down rulings based on the evidence presented and their interpretation of the law

If the law is very clear on a given issue, a judge has to stick to it regardless of how they personally feel. In other cases, laws may be ambiguous, and that’s when a judge has to issue their own interpretation of the law. Judges also have a fair amount of discretion when it comes to handing down penalties, such as the length of a sentence for a criminal conviction or the payment sum for a civil case. That's where it starts to really matter who is in the seat.

Superior Court judges serve six-year terms, but they don’t always have to face reelection when that time is up. They’ll only appear on your ballot if someone challenges their seat at the end of their term. Judges who go unchallenged automatically get reelected into their next term and never appear on the ballot at all.

You might recognize their work from …

Your traffic ticket dispute. Or your child custody case. Or that time you served on a jury. If you’ve never had to interact with the court system before, you’ve definitely heard of a case the Orange County Superior Court has handled: Consider the twisty turny story of John Meehan, which inspired the podcast and TV series Dirty John.

What should I consider in a candidate?

Evaluating judicial candidates is notoriously hard. There can be dozens of them in a given election, and since many candidates are wary of politicizing judgeships, they don’t spend a lot of money on campaign advertising, which makes it hard to find out who they are or what they stand for. Plus, these are nonpartisan seats, so you don’t have the option of just voting for candidates who identify as a member of the party with whom you’re registered.

This is really not an easy task for the average voter, but there are a few pieces of information you can look at to help with your decision.

Here are some tips based on advice we previously received from Judge Stuart Rice, an L.A. Superior Court judge and a past president of the California Judges Association (note: he is not up for reelection):

Look at the Bar Association's ratings. The O.C. Bar Association (OCBA) undertakes a lengthy evaluation process for each judicial candidate during every election. This year, OCBA officials released those ratings on Feb. 13 and they've been added to the candidate information below. They give the following definitions for the four possible ratings:

• "Exceptionally Well Qualified" — Possessing qualities and attributes considered to be of remarkable or extraordinary superiority so that, without genuine doubt, such person is deemed to be fit to perform the judicial function with distinction.
• "Well Qualified" — Possessing qualities and attributes considered to be worthy of special note as indicative of a superior fitness to perform the judicial function with a high degree of skill and effectiveness.
• "Qualified" — Possessing qualities and attributes considered to equip a person to perform the judicial function adequately and satisfactorily.
• "Not Qualified" — Possessing less than the minimum qualities and attributes considered necessary to perform the judicial function adequately and satisfactorily. If a Candidate is voted Not Qualified due to lack of sufficient experience, then the Committee may indicate this fact in its report to the appointing or approving authority.

Check out endorsements. These are nonpartisan seats, but you’ll still see endorsements from newspapers, politicians and issue-based organizations, just like any political contest. If there’s an organization you trust, their endorsement might tip the scales for you.

Consider candidates’ experience. The only requirement for being a judge is to be authorized to practice law in California (usually by passing the bar exam), or to have already served as a judge for 10 years in California. That means you might find a wide range of legal experience among candidates. If they were a judge before, or have significant trial experience, that’s a big clue as to how prepared they may be for the job on day one. Having a history as a prosecutor or defense attorney can also tell you they’ve had a lot of experience in court, and give you an idea of their potential approach to criminal justice issues.

Here are some common job titles you may see on the ballot:

• Superior Court commissioner: Someone hired by court judges to do lower-level judicial work, such as traffic violation hearings or small claims. “Once chosen as a commissioner, you are already doing the job as a judge,” said Judge Rice (who himself started his career as a Superior Court commissioner).
  
• Deputy district attorney: A prosecutor who works for the county district attorney’s office, representing the government in felony and misdemeanor cases.
  
• Deputy county counsel: An attorney who works for the county counsel’s office, giving legal advice to different departments and representing the county in various litigation issues.
  
• Public defender: A defense attorney employed by the government to represent defendants accused of crimes who can’t afford private lawyers.
  
• City attorney: An attorney who handles lawsuits on behalf of a city government. In places like L.A., deputy city attorneys also act as prosecutors for misdemeanors.
  
• Attorney, attorney at law, counselor at law, or lawyer: These are general titles used to describe anyone authorized to practice law, whether they’re a law professor, private defense attorney, in-house counsel at a company, or someone who’s passed the bar exam but isn’t actually working as a lawyer. You’ll likely have to dig a bit more to find out the candidate’s actual work experience.

Fun fact: Until recently, judicial candidates would frequently use their job titles on the ballot as a campaign marketing tool. Candidates would list themselves as “violent crimes prosecutor,” “child molestation prosecutor,” or “domestic violence attorney” to catch voters’ eye — and the tactic largely worked. A reform bill passed in 2017 put an end to that practice, so now you see much more neutral titles like the ones above. (That doesn’t necessarily stop candidates from finding other ways to finesse their appearance on the ballot — one legally changed his first name to “Judge” in the 2020 elections, despite not being an actual sitting judge.)

Look at a candidate’s website. If a candidate doesn’t even bother having a website or online presence where you can learn more about them, that’s a signal they may not be running a serious campaign, Judge Rice said. Campaign websites can also give you more detailed information about a candidate’s background, mission and experience.

Why do we vote for judges?

In short, because we have for a long time and because proposals to stop electing judges haven’t succeeded.

If you’re not totally comfortable with the idea of electing judges, you’re not alone. Lots of people have questioned whether it’s a good idea to elect our judiciary — does it cause judges to worry more about being popular instead of making the right decisions in cases? Some critics also point to something that happened back in 2006 across the county line in L.A. when a well-respected sitting judge who had served on the court for over 20 years unexpectedly lost her seat to a bagel shop owner with much less legal experience who spent way more money on campaign advertising.

More reading

• How Courts Work (Judicial Council of California): Helpful background on the state court system
• Let A Judge Help You Judge The Superior Court Candidates (LAist): Listen to our full 2018 interview with Judge Stuart Rice.
• When (And Why) We Vote For Judges (KCET): A primer on why we’re even doing all of this.
• Why Do So Few Public Defenders Become Judges? (NPR): An exploration into the possible biases against public defenders as capable judges.
• Metropolitan News-Enterprise: A daily L.A. newspaper focused on local legal news and the play-by-play of judicial politics.

The Candidates

With all the above in mind, here is our judges guide. It includes the six candidates vying for three seats. Each profile has the candidate's job, campaign website, and a link to their full list of endorsements (when available).

It's worth noting that of 36 judge seats up for election in Orange County, just three are competitive.

You can also check out this analysis from our friends at Voice of OC:

• Finding The Read Judges Of OC
  

Office No. 3

Dan Jacobson
Attorney

Full candidate statement:

Jason Baez
Deputy District Attorney, County Of Orange

Full candidate statement:

Office No. 16

Richard Zimmer
Deputy District Attorney, County Of Orange

Full candidate statement:

Binh Dang
Deputy Public Defender, County Of Los Angeles

Office No. 35

Whitney Bokosky
Deputy District Attorney, County Of Orange

Full candidate statement:

Daniel J. Kern
Attorney At Law