Countywide : Judges Klopfer, Aldrich Honored

Judges Barry B. Klopfer and Richard D. Aldrich have been selected the outstanding jurists of the year by the Ventura County Trial Lawyers Assn.

Klopfer, chosen from the Municipal Court, and Aldrich, of the Superior Court, were named judges of the year based on their performance on the bench.

“These are people who have made an exceptional contribution in the past year,” said David W. Long, secretary-treasurer of the association.

The honorees were selected by civil attorneys, business litigators, prosecutors, criminal defense attorneys and the Ventura County Bar Assn.

The awards have been an annual event since 1978. Last year the association honored the entire Municipal and Superior Court benches for reorganizing the judges’ duties to make it easier for civil cases to be brought to trial, Long said.

Klopfer was appointed to the Municipal Court bench in 1987 by Gov. George Deukmejian. Before that he spent 16 years with the Ventura County district attorney’s office, specializing for the last several years in consumer fraud and environmental protection cases.

Aldrich was appointed by Deukmejian to the Superior Court in 1990. Virtually unknown in Ventura County legal circles at the time, Aldrich “has just come in and made a hell of a mark,” Long said.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Aldrich had a civil practice in Los Angeles County, where he specialized in general civil litigation, business fraud, attorney and medical malpractice, insurance bad faith, personal injury and products liability.