Victoria Gerrard Chaney

Victoria Gerrard Chaney was confirmed to the Court of Appeal, Second District, Division One, on July 1, 2009, after having served nineteen years as a trial judge. In addition to her duties in the Second District, Justice Chaney has sat by appointment on the California Supreme Court on multiple occasions, and serves as a special master for the Commission on Judicial Performance. She is also a member of the Judicial Council’s Civil and Small Claims Committee, sits on various Council subcommittees, and serves on the California Judges Association’s Ethics and Response to Criticism Committees.

Justice Chaney was appointed by Governor George Deukmejian to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1990 and elevated to the Los Angeles Superior Court by Governor Pete Wilson in 1994. As a trial judge she presided over criminal cases in Compton, a civil docket at the Mosk Courthouse, and class actions and complex cases in the Complex Litigation Division at the Central Civil West Courthouse. During her service as a trial judge, Justice Chaney received awards from several judicial, attorney, and civil groups.

Before appointment to the bench, Justice Chaney was an associate with Dryden Harrington and Swartz, and then served eleven years in the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, including as an assistant city attorney in the office's Civil Liability Division. Prior to attending law school, Justice Chaney was a registered nurse at the LAC-USC and Cedars-Sinai medical centers, and to this day maintains her licenses as a registered and public health nurse.