Position: U.S. Magistrate Judge
Salary: $186,852 Annually
Location: Santa Ana, California
Opening Date: February 19, 2016
Closing Date: May 6, 2016
Number of Positions: One
Vacancy Number: 16-13

POSITION OVERVIEW
The United States Judicial Conference has authorized the appointment of a full-time United States Magistrate Judge for the Central District of California, beginning as soon as the position is filled. The United States District Court for the Central District of California is authorized to hold court in Los Angeles, Riverside and Santa Ana. The District Court may assign a Magistrate Judge to hold court in any of these locations and may reassign a Magistrate Judge from one location in the District to another as workload may require.
A Merit Selection Panel, comprised of attorneys and other members of the community, will review all applications and recommend to the Judges, in confidence, those persons it considers best qualified. All applications are kept confidential, unless the applicant consents to disclosure, and all applications are examined only by members of the Merit Selection Panel and Judges of the Court. The Panel’s deliberations remain confidential. Appointments are subject to District Court review and approval of FBI full-field investigation and IRS tax checks. All federal Magistrate Judges are subject to the financial disclosure filing requirements pursuant to the Ethics in Government Act of 1978.
A full range of benefits is offered including, but not limited to, the Judicial Retirement System and health, life, disability, and long-term care insurance. The term of office is eight years. Magistrate Judges may be reappointed to subsequent eight-year terms.
Duties of the position are demanding and wide-ranging. Magistrate Judges conduct pretrial proceedings in civil and criminal cases, including law and motion matters, settlement conferences, initial appearances, and bail hearings. Magistrate Judges also preside over jury and court trials in civil cases with the consent of the parties, as well as trials and dispositions of misdemeanor cases. These duties are more fully set forth in Central District General Orders 05-07 and 06-01, available on the Court’s website at: www.cacd.uscourts.gov. Basic jurisdiction of United States Magistrate Judges is specified in 28 U.S.C. § 636.

QUALIFICATIONS
To be qualified for appointment, an applicant must:
1) Meet the statutory qualifications at 28 U.S.C. § 631 (b) which require that a U.S. Magistrate Judge must be, and have been for at least five years, a member in good standing of the bar of the highest court of a state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Territory of Guam, or the Virgin Islands of the United States. The applicant must also
have been engaged in active law practice for at least five years. However, for positions in the Central District, qualified applicants generally have ten or more years of relevant federal experience.
The Court may consider, as substitute experience for the active practice of law, any combination of the following: state judicial officer; federal judicial officer; attorney for federal or state agencies; law clerk to any judicial officer (limited to two years); and other legal experience considered suitable by a majority of the Court;
2) Be:
- competent to perform all duties of the office;
- of good moral character;
- emotionally stable and mature;
- committed to equal justice under law;
- in good health;
- patient;
- courteous;
- decisive;
- and capable of deliberation;
3) Be less than seventy years old;
4) Not be related to a District Judge of the appointing court at the time of initial appointment, as
specified in 28 U.S.C. § 458; and
5) Be a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident of the United States currently seeking citizenship
and intending to become a citizen immediately upon meeting the eligibility requirements.

HOW TO APPLY
Send an email with an electronic version of the completed U.S. Magistrate Judge application and writing sample to mjrecruit-LA@cacd.uscourts.gov. E-mail documents must be in Word or PDF format. Zip files and faxes will not be accepted. The writing sample should be no more than 20 pages.
Refer to: Vacancy Number 16-13: U.S. Magistrate Judge - REPOST
An electronic version of the U.S. Magistrate Judge Application form is available on the U.S. District Court Web Site: http://www.cacd.uscourts.gov/employment A hard copy application may be obtained from the Human Resources Department, United States District Court, 312 N. Spring Street, Room 535, Los Angeles, CA 90012. Phone (213) 894-2356.

Application packets must be received by the Human Resources Department no later than May 6, 2016.

PLEASE NOTE: Individuals who have already submitted an application packet do not need to resubmit a new one.
Applicants are advised that the U.S. Magistrate Judge Application form has been revised effective February 2015. Previous application forms should not be submitted and will not be considered.
The Federal Judiciary is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer