Ashworth named presiding judge in El Dorado County, McLaughlin now assistant presiding judge

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - The El Dorado County Superior Court has announced the selection of Hon. Vicki Ashworth as presiding judge, and Hon. Michael J. McLaughlin as assistant presiding judge. They will both serve a two-year term starting January 1, 2022.

Judge Ashworth is the current Assistant Presiding Judge under Judge Suzanne Kingsbury who is retiring at the end of the month. Ashworth was elected to the El Dorado County Superior Court bench in 2014. Currently sitting in Department 1 of the Main Street Branch in Placerville, she has presided over criminal, traffic, family, and civil matters as well as the Veterans Court.

She has also been appointed to serve on the Work Group on Homelessness established by California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye in October of 2020.

Prior to her career as a judicial officer, Judge Ashworth earned a Juris Doctor degree from McGeorge School of Law, Sacramento. Her legal career began as a deputy district attorney with the Amador County District Attorney’s Office in 1997. In 1999, she joined the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office as a deputy district attorney until her election to the
bench in 2014.

Judge McLaughlin serves as the Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Court for El Dorado County Superior Court. He was appointed to the bench by former Governor Edmund G. Brown in 2018. Currently sitting in Department 4 of the South Lake Tahoe Branch, he presides over juvenile, criminal, family law, civil, and probate matters.

Prior to his career as a judicial officer, Judge McLaughlin earned a Juris Doctor degree from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. He began his legal career working as a civil litigation attorney in the Los Angeles area before relocating to El Dorado County in 1998, where he practiced in the areas of general civil litigation and business transactions in the Lake Tahoe area until his appointment to the bench in 2018.