Alicia L. Peyton, 43, an attorney with the personal injury litigation firm King & Markman, is campaigning for a seat on the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Group 15. The position pays $182,060.

“When I looked at running for judge, what I wanted to see in this particular bench was respect,” Peyton told VoxPopuli in a Zoom interview. “I thought I wanted to see someone that understood the law, that followed the law to the T, but also was respectful of all constituents in the courtroom.”

Hailing from Pine Hills, the one-time adjunct professor and former public defender squares off against incumbent Judge Jeffrey Ashton and candidate Chris Mack, general counsel and director of legal administration for the Osceola County Clerk & Comptroller’s Office, in the Aug. 20 primary.

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At a moment when Americans’ confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court is at its lowest point in the last three decades, according to Pew Research Center, Peyton said judges must demonstrate knowledge of the law, impartiality and ethics.

“These races are becoming more and more important because what we're starting to understand is that your local judges can eventually become appointed to your appellate courts, which can be appointed to your federal courts, which could then be potentially appointed to your Supreme courts,” she said. “So these local races are extremely important to ensure that the people that are serving sitting in the people's seat are fair, impartial, void of partisan affiliation, void of partisan ideals.”

She approaches the law as “what it is as written,” but said “when the law does not speak, there's room for argument and that's what the litigants are for.” She added that as a judge she would be “fair and impartial, call balls and strikes, nothing else.”

“Means to an end”

Peyton said she knew from a very young age that she wanted a legal career. She describes it as a “calling.”

She remembers in elementary school, when asked What do you want to be when you grow up? question, she wrote down: “loyer.”

“That’s how I thought it was spelled,” she said, laughing. “I can't recall where I got that from or why that passion was instilled in me at such a young age. But in middle school, I just recall seeing something on television and I saw a judge and I said, Oh Mom, Dad, I want to do that. Everything I've done from middle school forward has been to propel me to this stage. So really becoming a judge is something that's always been instilled in me. My career as an attorney is a means to an end.”

Peyton graduated from Florida State University — she remains a devoted Seminoles football fan — and earned her law degree from Florida A&M College of Law where she worked as a teaching assistant in the school’s legal writing department and was president of the Black Law Students Association and executive board member of the Student Law Association. She was also active in the Virgil Hawkins Chapter of the National Bar Association and the Paul C. Perkins Bar Association, both professional organizations for African-American lawyers.

Peyton spent five years in the Public Defender’s Office for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, representing indigent adults and juveniles charged with misdemeanors and felonies before joining King & Markman, an Orlando law firm that promotes itself as “giv[ing] clients a voice against the wealthy and powerful.” For the past 11 years, she has represented survivors of wrongful death and victims of catastrophic vehicular accidents, medical malpractice and premises liability.

She has taught business and criminal law as an adjunct professor with Strayer University, worked as a forensic case manager for Lakeside Behavioral Healthcare and volunteered for the guardian ad litem program for the Legal Aid Society of Orlando.

She said she would bring “relatability” to the court.

“I'm the only candidate in this race that has represented both victims of crime and also represented people accused of crime. And that level of understanding from both standpoints gives me a unique edge, in my opinion when I look at my opponents, as it relates to understanding and relatability from a bench perspective,” she said.

“Persevere and pivot”

Peyton’s other lens is the special needs community. Her 5-year-old son has Down Syndrome and has survived cancer and two open-heart surgeries.

“If there's ever an area in the Ninth Circuit that we could probably pay more focus to, I would say it's our special needs population,” she said.

“Being a parent of a child that has been through so much in his short five years of life, I've learned what it looks like to persevere,” said Peyton who spent nine months with her then 19-month-old in the hospital as he went through cancer treatment during the pandemic.

“I've also learned what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a little bit of lack of respect and understanding. You never know what someone's going through when they walk into that courtroom, or when they walk into that hospital room, or when they walk past you in the grocery store.”

Today, she said, her son is an energetic youngster. “He's definitely taught us how to persevere and to pivot.”

She said that that life experience combined with her professional background inform her campaign and, if elected, her rulings from the bench.

"I can show people what it means to say, I may not know what you're going through, but I know everybody has a story and I fully understand what it means to be respectful, even if the ruling doesn't come down in your favor.”