Four months after he got the boot, Assemblymember Bill Essayli, R-Corona, was returned to the Judiciary Committee on Thursday by house leadership.

The move restores a GOP lawyer-lawmaker to the committee that generally vets legislation addressing the judiciary, civil liability and family law. Essayli’s ouster in late December by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, had left the panel without a lawyer in the vice chair position for the first time in decades.