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 1983 / Active

Judith Dobson McConnell

Presiding Justice, California Court of Appeal

Judith Dobson McConnell is a Presiding Justice of the California Court of Appeal (89 judges, selected by merit selection with retention), serving since 1983. She previously served on the Superior Court of California, County of San Diego. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Tenure: Since 1983 · 43 yrs

Judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1980	Superior Court of California, County of San Diego	–	–
1983	California Court of Appeal	–	–
2001	California Court of Appeal	–	–
2003	California Court of Appeal	–	–
2003	California Court of Appeal	–	–

Education

University of California-Berkeley		1966
University of California-Berkeley		1969

Judicial Record

In our data, McConnell authored 250 published opinions for the court (1983–2019). Most cited: San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency v. Sara D. (279 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. 131 of these were attributed to McConnell by a unique court-, date-, and surname-match against our roster (marked ), because CourtListener recorded no author for them. Each links to the official text to verify. How we match.

Selected opinions

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2011	San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency v. Sara D.†	193 Cal. App. 4th 549	279
2010	Durell v. Sharp Healthcare	183 Cal. App. 4th 1350	265
2010	In Re Giovanni F.	184 Cal. App. 4th 594	162
2007	In Re Mary G.	59 Cal. Rptr. 3d 703	158
2009	In Re Jason J.	175 Cal. App. 4th 922	151
2005	Huntingdon Life Sciences, Inc. v. Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty USA, Inc.	29 Cal. Rptr. 3d 521	149
2014	Graham v. Bank of America, N.A.†	226 Cal. App. 4th 594	144
2002	Dwayne P. v. Superior Court	126 Cal. Rptr. 2d 639	141
2003	In Re Karla C.	6 Cal. Rptr. 3d 205	125
2018	San Diego Cnty. Health & Human Servs. Agency v. T.B. (In re D.B.)†	237 Cal. Rptr. 3d 53	124
2012	San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency v. C.G.†	207 Cal. App. 4th 94	123
2011	San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency v. Mary M.†	202 Cal. App. 4th 237	121
2008	Zagami, Inc. v. James A. Crone, Inc.	74 Cal. Rptr. 3d 235	101
2006	CHERYL P. v. Superior Court	42 Cal. Rptr. 3d 504	101
2005	KATIE v. v. SUPERIOR COURT	30 Cal. Rptr. 3d 320	97

Showing the 15 most-cited of 250 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 is Judith Dobson McConnell on?: Judith Dobson McConnell is a Presiding Justice of the California Court of Appeal.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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43 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).