SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — El Dorado County Superior Court’s next presiding judge will be Hon. Vicki Ashworth and Hon. Michael J. McLaughlin will serve as assistant presiding judge.

The presiding judge and assistant presiding judge serve a two-year term, to commence Jan. 1. Ashworth is the current assistant presiding judge to Judge Suzanne Kingsbury, who plans to retire at the end of the year.

She was elected to the El Dorado County Superior Court bench in 2014. Currently sitting in Department 1 of the Main Street courthouse, she has presided over criminal, traffic, family and civil matters as well as the Veterans Court.

Ashworth 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, Ashworth earned a juris doctor degree from McGeorge School of Law in 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 Gov. Edmund G. Brown in 2018.

Currently sitting in Department 4 of the South Lake Tahoe courthouse, he presides over juvenile, criminal, family law, civil and probate matters. Prior to his career as a judicial officer, McLaughlin earned a juris doctor degree from Loyola Law School in 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 until his appointment to the bench in 2018.