How do judges of the California Court of Appeal reach the bench?

The court's current selection method is merit selection with retention.

California Court of Appeal / Joined 1968 / Served to 1990

Joseph Anthony Decristoforo

Associate Justice, California Court of Appeal

Joseph Anthony Decristoforo was an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal (89 judges, selected by merit selection with retention), who joined the court in 1968. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1921–1992
Tenure: 1968–1990 · 21 yrs

Judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1968	California Court of Appeal	–	–
1989	California Court of Appeal	–	–

Judicial Record

In our data, Decristoforo authored 12 published opinions for the court (1980–1991). Most cited: Sacramento Old City Ass'n v. City Council of Sacramento (71 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Selected opinions

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
1991	Sacramento Old City Ass'n v. City Council of Sacramento	229 Cal. App. 3d 1011	71
1980	People v. Froom	108 Cal. App. 3d 820	29
1990	Crocker National Bank v. Emerald	221 Cal. App. 3d 852	26
1990	In Re the Marriage of Economou	224 Cal. App. 3d 1466	22
1980	County of Shasta v. County of Trinity	106 Cal. App. 3d 30	17
1990	In Re the Marriage of Economou	223 Cal. App. 3d 97	15
1989	People v. Pennington	213 Cal. App. 3d 173	15
1991	Stanton v. City of West Sacramento	226 Cal. App. 3d 1438	14
1980	People v. Johnson	105 Cal. App. 3d 884	13
1990	McAlexander v. Siskiyou Joint Community College	222 Cal. App. 3d 768	11
1989	People v. Thompson	214 Cal. App. 3d 1547	8
1989	Faria v. Northwestern National Life Insurance	216 Cal. App. 3d 1129	1

Showing the 12 most-cited of 12 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

How do judges of the California Court of Appeal reach the bench?: The court's current selection method is merit selection with retention.
Which court was Joseph Anthony Decristoforo on?: Joseph Anthony Decristoforo was an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal.

Sources

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21 years on the California Court of Appeal. Data as of 2026-03-31. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).