Bermudez brings access-to-justice focus from Imperial County bench

When Justice Eran M. Bermudez took over a family law calendar on the Imperial County Superior Court, she found that most litigants had no lawyers and many trials were being continued or dropped because they arrived without the documents needed to finish their cases.

She assembled packets with sample trial briefs, income and expense declarations, copies of the code sections she relied on most and referrals to the court's self-help center and county agencies.

"What I saw was litigants who felt more empowered and who felt more trust and confidence in the system," she told the Commission on Judicial Appointments. Her calendar moved faster, too.

Bermudez was confirmed to the 4th District Court of Appeal, Division 1, in San Diego on May 26, a month after Gov. Gavin Newsom nominated her. She seeks a four-year term in the Nov. 3 retention vote, completing the remainder of her predecessor's term.

On the trial bench for seven years, she tried to explain rulings without "too much legalese." Even when litigants lost, "I wanted to make sure that they understood my ruling, that I listened to them," she told the appointments panel.

Imperial County's geography shaped her approach. The county has a small population spread over a wide area, and "sometimes you have to take two buses to get to the courthouse," she said. She said she pushed colleagues to expand remote access and helped create collaborative courts.

Bermudez handled misdemeanor criminal calendars, a family law assignment that included hundreds of trials, and civil overflow matters. She was presiding judge for four months before her elevation to the appellate court.

Before becoming a judge, she spent about a decade representing school districts and public agencies, first as an associate at Best Best & Krieger LLP and then as a partner at Garcia Hernández Sawhney & Bermudez LLP, handling education, labor, employment and public agency matters. She worked for two years as a complaint resolution officer in UC San Diego's Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination.

The youngest of five children of parents who immigrated from Mexico, Bermudez grew up in the Imperial Valley. w. She and her two older sisters all became lawyers. Nadia Bermudez, is now with Meyers Nave in San Diego. The eldest, federal Judge Ruth Bermudez Montenegro, administered her Superior Court oath in 2018.

Bermudez graduated from UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, has since mentored students in Imperial County's mock trial and migrant speech and debate programs, and is a past president of the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association.

While still in private practice, she served on the board and scholarship committee of the Tom Homann LGBTQ+ Law Association with attorney James J. Cekola, who testified at her confirmation hearing. She "had notes on every scholarship application," he said, and steered the committee to decisions by engaging points of contention "fully, and respectfully."

They later worked together as complaint resolution officers at UC San Diego, where she handled allegations of discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual violence. "She raised the standard of work in the office through her writing and analysis," he said. She approached people with empathy," he added, "but she never lost sight of her obligation to remain impartial and grounded by the facts."

Asked at the confirmation hearing what she most looked forward to on the appellate court, Bermudez said, digging deeply into issues and quickly mastering new areas of law. "I've always loved being a student, so I treat this very much like being a student," she said.