By Greg Mitchell

In 1976, Steven Vartabedian was in private practice with law partner Charles Poochigian. Twenty two years later, Poochigian was a state Assembly member, and Vartabedian was on the Fifth District Court of Appeal.

Like Poochigian, Vartabedian is a hometown hero, born and raised in the Fresno area. As with most of the Fifth District justices, Vartabedian is even-tempered and interested during oral argument.

Vartabedian has made some good calls as appellate judge. His holding that a fetus injured from its mother's workplace injury is not limited to workers' comp was upheld by the California Supreme Court, as was his ruling that a county could bring a federal antitrust class action against an electric utility. Likewise, his dissent in the custody "move-away" case Marriage of Burgess carried the day with the Supremes.

He missed on the minimum requirements for parolee searches in People v. Reyes, 51 Cal.App.4th 1388, but hey, nobody's perfect.

POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS: Vartabedian contributed $550 to Poochigian's Assembly campaigns from 1995 to 1998. Vartabedian's wife, Marilyn, contributed $300 to Dan Lungren's AG campaign.