James Ardaiz

Retired Administrative Presiding Justice, Fifth District Court of Appeal for the State of California.

Justice James A. Ardaiz has had a long and prestigious career. He was one of the youngest lawyers in the State of California to achieve the designation of Chief Deputy District Attorney in charge of homicide cases. Elected to the Municipal Court in 1980 at the age of 32, he served as a trial judge with two terms as Presiding Judge. In 1985, he was appointed by Governor Deukmejian as a Superior Court Judge, where he served as a general trial judge with one term as Criminal Presiding Judge. Then, in 1989, he was nominated by Gov. Deukmejian to the Fifth District Court of Appeal. In 1994, by nomination of Gov. Pete Wilson, he became Administrative Presiding Justice of the Fifth District Court of Appeal, one of six Administrative Presiding Justices governing the state appellate system.

In his thirty years of judicial experience, James Ardaiz served at every level of the state judiciary, including as Pro Tempore Justice of the Supreme Court on multiple occasions. He was a frequent instructor at the California State Judicial College at Berkeley, CA, teaching judges in the subjects of trial practice, judicial decision making, evidence, and administration. He has been a lecturer at the national level in judicial administration and evidence, as well as a consultant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation with respect to DNA evidence. He is a published author in the field of law, non-fiction, and fiction, as well as numerous articles on legal policy and legal humor, as well as a frequent speaker on judicial policy. He retired from the judiciary in 2010 and entered private practice as an arbitrator/mediator, ultimately becoming general counsel to a major development and farming interest, in addition to his dispute resolution practice. Married with three children, he is a trained oil and watercolor artist, focusing on portrait and still life.