Judge Robin L. Wolfe

Robin L. Wolfe was appointed to the Tulare County Superior Court in 2017 and currently presides over misdemeanor cases in the South County. Her background includes service as both a public defender and a prosecutor. Key highlights of her education and career are outlined below.

Education and Bar Admission

  • Earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Denver (Sturm College of Law) in 1994 and a Bachelor of Arts from California State University, Fresno.
  • Admitted to the State Bar of California on June 7, 1995 (Bar No. 176565).

Legal Career (Pre-Judicial)

  • Deputy Public Defender, Tulare County (1995–2005).
  • Deputy District Attorney, Kern County (2005–2017).

Judicial Appointment and Assignments

  • Appointed to the Tulare County Superior Court by Governor Jerry Brown in November 2017 (at age 48), filling a vacancy on the bench.
  • Political affiliation: Registered Democrat (as noted in the official appointment announcement).
  • Filed for re-election in 2024 (appeared on the nonpartisan primary ballot for retention on March 5, 2024).
  • Current assignment (as of 2025): Department 16 at the South County Justice Center in Porterville. She handles misdemeanor pretrial conferences (alphabet O–Z) and all misdemeanor jury trials for the Porterville/Lindsay/Tulare area.
  • Earlier on the bench she served in the Visalia divisions (including the Juvenile Department handling delinquency and dependency cases). For example, a 2019 appellate case reviewed her termination-of-parental-rights order in a juvenile dependency matter.

Notable Cases and Rulings

  • Presided over juvenile dependency and termination proceedings. In 2019, the Fifth District Court of Appeal reviewed one of her orders terminating parental rights in a Welfare & Institutions Code §366.26 hearing (In re T.L.).
  • Has handled numerous criminal misdemeanor cases. No widely publicized appellate rulings in her criminal cases are known.

Professional and Community Involvement

  • Active in diversity and bias-elimination initiatives. Co-presented with other judges at an October 2020 Tulare/Kern bench-bar event on gender diversity in the judiciary.
  • Contributed to statewide judicial policy development: she submitted formal comments on proposed rule amendments concerning bias prevention in 2021.
  • Engages with local legal communities, including participating in Elimination of Bias committees for Tulare and Kern counties and coordinating training with bar associations and legal organizations.