{"id":297887,"date":"2026-05-03T12:36:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T12:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/297887\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T12:36:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T12:36:37","slug":"l-a-county-superior-court-elections-voter-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/297887\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. County Superior Court elections voter guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> <\/p>\n

Carlos Dammeier, administrative law judge, California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board
Bar rating: Qualified<\/p>\n

Dammeier began in law enforcement, working for a decade as a dispatcher, jailer and police officer. He went to law school and, for a quarter-century, represented police and other public-sector unions, \u201chandling employee rights cases at every level from administrative hearings to the U.S. Supreme Court,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n

In 2013, The Times reported<\/a>, a law firm in which he was a named partner dissolved after two Costa Mesa City Council members sued one of his clients, the city police union, over legal and political tactics the politicians asserted were overly aggressive.<\/p>\n

Dammeier recently said his team was the focus of \u201cantiunion attacks by political forces\u201d and said that after multiple investigations, none of the firm\u2019s attorneys faced charges or disciplinary action.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Dammeier became an administrative law judge. His campaign website states he has heard and issued decisions in more than 2,000 unemployment, disability and tax appeal cases.<\/p>\n

Priorities are addressing case backlogs and making thoughtful, unbiased decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWin or lose, everyone needs to know they had fair treatment by our courts,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He ran for Superior Court seats in Merced and San Bernardino counties in March 2024, losing both races, and also ran unsuccessfully in San Bernardino County in 2016.<\/p>\n

David Ross, deputy alternate public defender
Bar rating: Qualified<\/p>\n

Ross worked as a legislative aide for an Indiana Democrat in Congress and as a TV reporter and documentary producer before becoming a lawyer in 1994, according to his campaign website.<\/p>\n

His legal career began in Riverside County, where he served five years as a deputy public defender. In 2000, he became a Los Angeles County deputy alternate public defender in regional branches, including Long Beach and Compton. He has been at the Torrance office since 2018.<\/p>\n

Ross, according to his website, has represented more than 10,000 indigent defendants and completed more than 110 jury trials.<\/p>\n

A priority would be ensuring people feel recognized in his courtroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is to hear everyone out, so that even if a party ultimately loses, they will walk out of court knowing the judge listened,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n

Troy W. Slaten, administrative law judge, state Department of Industrial Relations
Bar rating: Qualified<\/p>\n

After roles as a child actor on \u201cCagney and Lacey\u201d and \u201cParker Lewis Can\u2019t Lose,\u201d Slaten began a two-decade law career in 2005.<\/p>\n

He first worked as a private criminal defense attorney, then spent 11 years at an international firm where he focused on criminal, civil and administrative law and, for a time, managed the criminal defense division. He\u2019s regularly cited<\/a> as a legal analyst on TV and in The Times.<\/p>\n

Slaten volunteered as temporary Superior Court judge from 2016-20 and in 2021 became a full-time administrative law judge presiding over workers\u2019 compensation hearings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have uncovered fraud and have helped when injured workers have been denied healthcare and other benefits,\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n

He has twice run for Superior Court, falling short in 2020 and 2022.<\/p>\n

He would prioritize fairness and efficiency. \u201cI would work to ensure cases move forward in a timely and organized manner while preserving due process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Outside the courtroom, Slaten announces and deejays UCLA men\u2019s and women\u2019s water polo games.<\/p>\n

Donna Tryfman, L.A. County deputy public defender
Bar rating: Qualified<\/p>\n

A deputy public defender since 1998, Tryfman has had assignments countywide. From 2016-19, she supervised 25 attorneys and mentored new hires as deputy in charge of Eastlake Juvenile Court. She\u2019s worked in collaborative drug court, coordinating with prosecutors, judges and others to help individuals dealing with addiction.<\/p>\n

Her current assignment is in the Major Crimes Unit, where she exclusively handles homicides with special circumstances.<\/p>\n

Tryfman spent five years as president of the state Public Defenders Assn., according to her campaign website, and has proctored a high school program on civic duties and constitutional principles. She has served as a Superior Court judge pro tem, handling traffic and small claims cases. She received the peer-decided Gideon Award as felony attorney of the year in 2025, her bio states.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would champion further access to justice by exploring and expanding digital access to the courts in underserved communities,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"p]:text-cms-story-body-color-text clearfix”> Carlos Dammeier, administrative law judge, California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board Bar rating: Qualified Dammeier began in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[380,7166,20865,124644,17358,4579,1493,124642,48,52,51,47,50,49,35342,592,2211,124643,51114,688,124641],"class_list":["post-297887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-affordable-housing","tag-ballots","tag-candidates","tag-century-city-law-firm","tag-city-attorney","tag-district","tag-homelessness","tag-kuehl","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-officers","tag-people","tag-race","tag-use-attorney","tag-yaroslavsky","tag-years","tag-yebri"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}