Betty Dawson
Betty L. Dawson was a judge on the Fifth District of the California Courts of Appeal. Her appointment was confirmed on September 26, 2003, and she was approved by voters on November 14, 2006.[1][2] She retired on May 9, 2012.[3]
Education
Dawson attended City College of San Francisco, the University of the Americas in Puebla, Mexico, and San Francisco State University. In 1978, she received her J.D. from Hastings College of Law. She was then a teaching fellow at Stanford Law School for a year.[1]
Career
Dawson began her legal career as a research attorney for the California First District Court of Appeal. She moved to Merced in 1980 and practiced law with her husband until 1992. She then worked as a traffic referee and later a court commissioner for the Merced County Municipal Court. In 2000, she was appointed to the Merced County Superior Court. She became a presiding judge in 2002 and served in this position until her appointment to the court of appeals.[1]
Noteworthy cases
Sunshine Law
In 2009, the Sacramento Valley Mirror won a lawsuit seeking information about how much the Superior Court of Glenn County spent to remodel judge’s chambers. Judge Dawson wrote the ruling.
The Glenn County Court's attorney argued that the court wasn’t compelled to release information on how it spent the public’s money, but Dawson ruled the it the "spirit of the California Public Records Act" must be met. The attorney for the newspaper requesting the records said: "I never doubted this outcome. It is simply absurd to believe that any governmental agency, even a court, can hide how they spend public money, and yet that is exactly what the court’s attorney was arguing".[4]
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 California Courts, "Betty L. Dawson biography"
- ↑ SmartVoter.org, "California State Court of Appeal; District 5 Voter Information," November 7, 2006
- ↑ Metropolitan News Enterprise, "End of the month," October 31, 2012
- ↑ CalAware Today "Judge: Courts' Spending Records Are Public," June 19, 2009
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California, Southern District of California • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Central District of California, Eastern District of California, Northern District of California, Southern District of California
State courts:
California Supreme Court • California Courts of Appeal • California Superior Courts
State resources:
Courts in California • California judicial elections • Judicial selection in California
