JUDICIAL CANDIDATE SPEAKS OUT, CALLS FOR CHANGES TO COUNTY BAR’S RATING SYSTEM (HEAR PODCAST)

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Missed the show? Listen to our podcast of this interview, now posted here:

https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/sites/eastcountymagazine.org/files/au...

May 5, 2014 (San Diego) – Superior Court Judge candidate Michele Hagan was a guest on our May 5 East County Magazine Show on KNSJ 89.1 FM.

“We don’t let football players choose referees. So why are we letting lawyers choose judges?” asks Hagan, a former prosecutor and judge pro tem who also publishes a blog on legal issues.

She contends that the County Bar Association gave her a “lacking qualifications” rating because she spoke out in her blog about a local judge who awarded alimony to a man convicted of a violent sexual act against his wife, then worked to pass a new state law, AB 1522, to protect victims from having to pay alimony to spouses convicted of a violent sexual felony.

She contends that the Bar’s rating system for judicial candidates is flawed, subject to bias, and not transparent.   To read her credentials for the job, click "read more" and scroll down.

Hagan served as San Francisco Assistant District Attorney and San Diego Deputy City Attorney (Supervising Trial Attorney and Special Prosecutor of Domestic Violence and Child Abuse) and as a Judge Pro Tem, or temporary judge in San Francisco Superior Court. She  states she has tried over 100 jury trials and handled cases ranging from criminal to civil. She’s been a civil rights fact finder/investigator and is a certified fraud examiner. She chaired the American Bar Association’s Negotiations Skills Committee and served on the faculty of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. She’s taught advocacy skills at law schools including the University of San Diego, Emory, Loyola and the University of San Francisco. She has a law practice and legal training firm, TRIAL READY®.  She is a legal analyst on TV and radio who has appeared on major network news shows covering high profile legal cases such as the O.J. Simpson murder trial and President Clinton’s impeachment.   Also former newspaper columnist, she currently writes for her Trial Ready Blog, providing legal tips for the public. She hasa clean record with no disciplinary actions on file with the California Bar Asociation.

Hagan is one of three candidates running for Judicial seat 25, an open seat with no incumbent judge. 

The other candidates in her race include Brad Weinreb, a deputy attorney general who was rated qualified, and Ken Gosselin, who was also rated lacking qualifications. Gosselin, an attorney and judge pro tem, was required by a court to change wording on his ballot statement that Weinreb challenged as inflated.  Gosselin had claimed to be Harvard trained when he merely took a mediation class there.  He also claimed to have presided over many civil and criminal cases, when his experience is limited to small claims and traffic cases.

You can listen to the East County Magazine Show on KNSJ every Monday, Wednseday and Friday from 5-6 p.m.

Audio: 


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