- February 24, 2025
Ormond woman encourages others to help children
“When Batman gets in trouble he puts on the Kathy Weston light,” said Scott Cichon on Feb. 6 at her investiture as circuit judge.
“She’s fair, intelligent and tough,” he said.
An investiture is the official robing of a judge after they have been elected to the office.
Cichon, who worked with Weston at Cobb Cole, described her as a person who can’t say no. Even though she had a full-time job as an attorney, she answered yes when asked to take on a variety of tasks including coaching her daughter’s soccer team at Seabreeze High School and getting involved with the Ormond Beach Chamber of Commerce, Ormond Beach Historical Society, Seabreeze High School Advisory Council, Healthy Start and more. She has also served as president of the Volusia Bar Association and the Tiger Bay Club.
“If you need someone on your board, just ask Kathy,” he said.
Weston officially accepted her new job, judge for the Seventh Judicial Circuit, in the Volusia County Historic Courthouse in DeLand. The circuit includes Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia counties.
Cichon said Weston, a single mother of four, owed a lot of her success to her children, because they taught her patience and disciplinary measures. To modify behavior of a child, he said Weston would take off the door to their bedroom.
“I had never seen such an effective measure,” he said. As a gag, he took off the door to her office at work.
“She found it less funny than her kids did,” he said.
Weston was elected last November when she defeated attorney Adam Warren, and her six-year term began Jan. 6. She presides over a dependency division at the Volusia County Courthouse Annex at City Island in Daytona Beach
Judge Leah Case described Weston as thoughtful, smart, compassionate and hardworking, and said Weston will be making decisions that affect people’s lives.
“She will not be making those decisions once a year or once week, but every day,” she said.
Upon accepting the robe, Weston said working with abused children is troubling but rewarding.
“I’m just going to make the best decisions I can,” she said.
She said she gets to handle adoptions, and has presided over two sets of three siblings being adopted. “It was one of the greatest privileges and honors I could have,” she said.
She said only 45 percent of children from foster homes, age 19 to 22, have a GED or high school education.
“That’s not acceptable,” she said. “We can do better than that.”
She encouraged the members of the audience to get involved in helping children who don’t have a stable family life by mentoring or volunteering with Guardian Ad Litem
A former police officer, Judge Weston earned her undergraduate degree in accounting from Stetson University and her juris doctor with honors from the University of Notre Dame Law School.
She became an attorney in 1998 and first practiced law in Chicago, where she litigated international tax cases. After returning home to Florida in 2004, she worked in private practice, focusing on commercial litigation and family law. She is board certified by the Florida Bar in Business Litigation.
