(ELKTON, Md. — April 6, 2010) Judge O. Robert Lidums has been appointed county administrative judge for the Cecil County Circuit Court in the Second Judicial Circuit. Chief Judge Robert M. Bell of the Maryland Court of Appeals announced the appointment, which is effective immediately.

Judge Lidums replaces Judge Richard Eli Jackson, who died in March. Judge Jackson had served as county administrative judge since May 2006, and had been an associate judge for the Cecil County Circuit Court since September 2002.

The county administrative judge is responsible for the supervision of all judges, officers, and employees of the court, the assigning of judges to cases, and the court's budget.

Judge Lidums has been an associate judge since April 1998. He is a past member of the Maryland Judicial Conference Juvenile Law Committee, the State Advisory Board for Juvenile Services, and the Attorney Grievance Commission’s Inquiry Committee.

Born in Latvia, Judge Lidums grew up in Delaware and attended the University of Delaware. He received his law degree from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1970, and was admitted to the Maryland bar that same year.

Until his judicial appointment, Judge Lidums was in private practice for 28 years, with a primary focus on criminal defense and administrative law, having represented the Cecil County Board of Appeals, Elkton Board of Zoning Appeals and the Cecil County Department of Social Services.

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(Editor’s note: For more information, please contact the Office of Communications and Public Affairs at (410) 260-1488.)