Candidate for
Judge of the Superior Court; Office 31

Commissioner Douglas G. Carnahan is a Superior Court Commissioner sitting in the Torrance Branch of the Los Angeles Superior Court. Before that he was a Municipal Court Commissioner of the South Bay Judicial District, and sat in that district's courthouses in Torrance and Redondo Beach.

He is currently sitting in a court primarily responsible for felony preliminary hearings and sentencings. As a Municipal Court Commissioner he sat in all the divisions of the court, and over the years since 1984 (when he was first appointed by the judges of the South Bay court) has presided over thousands of cases, including felony preliminary hearings, probation violations, and sentencings, misdemeanor motions and trials, civil trials and motion matters, small claims, and traffic matters.

Commissioner Carnahan is a legal teacher and writing, and currently (and has since 1994) teaches a class in legal writing to paralegal students at the El Camino Community College in Torrance. He has prior teaching experience at the law schools of UWLA, USC, Loyola, and Northrup University. He has taught classes in, among other things, trial advocacy, criminal law, civil procedure, and torts.

He has authored a book on small claims law and practice (published by Parker & Son in 1992) and has written numerous columns and legal articles over the years. Over 100 of these have been published in the Los Angeles Daily Journal.

Commissioner Carnahan is a graduate of the California Judicial College, and has participated as teacher and student in numerous continuing judicial educational programs. He is a member, by appointment of Chief Justice Ronald George of the California Supreme Court, of the Civil and Small Claims Advisory Committee of the California Judicial Council, and on that committee chairs the Small Claims and Limited Case Subcommittee.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, Commissioner Carnahan practiced law privately in Los Angeles. He was also, from 1978-81, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at the USC Law Center. He is an Army veteran (1971-73) and is married and has two children.

A sampling of Commissioner Carnahan's articles over the years includes these titles:
"New Attorneys Must Starting Receiving the Proper

Training for the Job," Daily Journal, 3/2/88.

"A Judge's Education Is Never Finished," Daily Journal 8/8/88.

"Some Thoughts on DUI Sentencing," Daily Journal Report, 12/16/89.

"Unlawful Detainer Cases," Los Angeles Lawyer, January,
1989.

"Some Thoughts About the Voir Dire Debate," Daily Journal, 6/25/91.

"Judges Need a Trade School," National Law Journal, 4/13/92.
"Oliver Wendell Holmes: The Very Model of a Modern Major Judge; Today's Jurists Would Do Well to Emulate Practices
of Holmes," Daily Journal, 2/8-9/93.

"Legal Secretaries Are Pillars of the U.S. Justice System," Daily Journal, 10/12/93.

"Lincoln for Lawyers," Daily Journal, 2/11/94.
"Dr. King's Legal Legacy," Daily Journal, 1/13/95.
"Judges Should Have Special Appreciation of History," Daily Journal, 6/14/95.

"The History of Commissioners," California Courts Commentary, November, 1995.

"California Reporter: In Jack Smith, the Legal Community Lost Another Good Friend," Daily Journal, 1/12/96.

"Reshaping the Law: A Few Lessons from Justices Brandeis and Chin," Daily Journal, 6/5/96.

"Judicial Temperament and the Art of Judging," The California Bench, Summer 1996.

"What It Takes to Judge: Applying a Famous Political Science Model to the Judiciary," Daily Journal, 10/21/96.

"High Volume Justice [discussion of criminal arraignment courts]," Daily Journal, 6/11/97.

"Intruding Without Deciding: Small Claims As a Neighborhood Dispute Forum," California Bench, Summer, 1997.

"Rudeness May Go with the Territory, But You Don't Have to Practice It," Daily Journal, 9/18/97.

"For Novice, Trial Doesn't Have to Be an Exercise in Stress," Daily Journal, 6/24/98 (reprinted in "Pretrial Preparation:
The Last 60 Days," program materials published by the Orange
County Bar Association, 9/10/98).

"Trial Preparation Is Key to Life in the Legal Trenches," Daily Journal, 8/5/98.

"Depending on Judicial Independence: What Is the Best Way for Voters to Decide Who Is Fit to Be a Judge?" Daily Journal,
10/20/98.

"The Ethics of Community Outreach: Learning by Example," published in the syllabus of the 1999 Traffic Adjudication
Workshop of the California Office of Traffic Safety and
the Administrative Office of the Courts, May 1999.

"Blast from the Past: Lawyers Need Historian's Skill to Place Evidence in Proper Context," Daily Journal, 5/26/99.