Countywide

The San Diego County Superior Court’s 69 judges have unanimously elected Judge Arthur W. Jones their presiding judge.

Jones, 62, who has served for two years as the assistant to the current presiding judge, Judith McConnell, will take office Jan. 1. His assistant presiding judge will be elected next month.

In a statement, Jones said he is looking forward to the job--particularly to meeting the challenge of new state legislation that will require court jurisdictions to share resources and judges as the state assumes a greater percentage of trial-court funding from the counties.

In his presiding role, Jones will supervise overall court management, will assign judges and cases to appropriate departments to equalize workloads and will act as the liaison between the court and other agencies.

Jones, who received his law degree from UCLA, began practicing in San Diego in 1957 as a deputy city attorney. He then worked in private practice for 27 years, specializing in medical malpractice, worker’s compensation, products liability and construction defect litigation.

In 1985, Jones was appointed to a newly created Superior Court judgeship by former Gov. George Deukmejian.