Magistrate Judge Benjamin C. Sison, Jr.

 

Magistrate Judge Benjamin C. Sison, Jr. was sworn in on October 25, 2016. Prior to his appointment as Magistrate Judge of the Superior Court of Guam, he served since 2009 as a part-time Referee presiding over traffic and small claims cases. He also actively practiced law from 1994, and served as a full-time Assistant Professor in the Criminal Justice and Social Sciences Department and adjunct Professor for the Business Department of the Guam Community College from 2008. Between 1990 and 1992, he served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office.

Magistrate Judge Sison has authority to preside over child support, small claims and traffic cases, as well as cases involving change of name, collections, and certain uncontested divorces and post-judgment collection proceedings. In criminal cases, he presides over first appearances and arraignments, may determine bail and pre-trial release conditions, as well as take pleas and impose sentences in misdemeanor cases. He has the authority to issue summonses and bench warrants, and hear certain returns of warrants. He also has authority to preside over any matter which may be heard by a Referee of the Superior Court of Guam; and upon appointment, may serve as a Special Master, a settlement judge in a civil or domestic case, or a Judge Pro Tempore.

Magistrate Judge Sison received a B.S. in Biology in 1986 from the University of Hawaii at Manoa; his J.D. in 1990 from Boston College Law School; an M.B.A. in 1994 from Seattle University Albers School of Business; and an LL.M. in 2004 from the University of Washington School of Law.