William W. Bedsworth (born November 21, 1947, in Long Beach, California) is an Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal.
Justice Bedsworth grew up in Gardena, California. He lives in Laguna Beach and is married to Kelly. He also has a daughter, a son, and two grandchildren.[1] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree (cum laude) from Loyola Marymount University in 1968 and earned his Juris Doctor at the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall School of Law) in 1971. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in January 1972.
Bedsworth worked as a prosecutor in the Orange County District Attorney's Office (line deputy, felony trial deputy, appellate attorney, and managing attorney) as an Orange County deputy district attorney from 1972–1987. He handled cases in the California and United States Supreme Courts. He twice was elected President of the Association of Orange County Deputy District Attorneys and twice was elected to serve as a Director of the Board of the Orange County Bar Association.
In 1986, he won election to an Orange County Superior Court seat; he was re-elected in 1992 and February 1997 (he was Orange County Superior Court judge, 1987–1997). He was assigned by California Supreme Court as temporary appellate justice from April to December 1994.
On February 25, 1997, Governor Pete Wilson appointed him an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District, Division 3 in Santa Ana, and he was confirmed to serve in that position from 1998 through 2010.
He has indicated that he will retire from the bench in November 2024, at age 77, after a 55 year legal career.[2]
Bedsworth was a member of the adjunct faculty of Western State University College of Law, Chapman University School of Law, the California Judicial College in Berkeley, and the Board of Advisors of Whittier Law School. Bedsworth is a current member of the adjunct faculty of University of California, Irvine School of Law.
He has published law review articles and in lay magazines. He has long written a column entitled, "A Criminal Waste of Space," and recently published his second book, "A Criminal Waste of Time" (American Lawyer Media Publications). He writes regularly for the Orange County Lawyer magazine.[3] The California Newspaper Publishers' Association named Bedsworth's "A Criminal Waste of Space" best work in the field of 'Columns, Commentary, and Criticism' in a paper of under 10,000 circulation for 2004.[4]
