Judge R. Steven Redding was appointed to the bench in the Eastern Panhandle on February 22, 2018. He was elected later in 2018 and re-elected in 2024 to the new Twenty-Seventh Judicial Circuit (Berkeley and Morgan Counties).

Judge Redding is a native of New Carrollton, Maryland. He has a bachelor’s degree in government and politics from the University of Maryland and a law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law, where he graduated with honors and was a member of the Law Review.

Judge Redding attended law school at night while starting his family and working full-time on the Prince George’s County, Maryland, Fire Department. After he became a lawyer, he continued to work at the fire department as an attorney and firefighter until ending his firefighting career, in 1997, as a lieutenant. He then served as an active member of the South Berkeley Volunteer Fire Department until the end of 2022. He was awarded a Medal of Valor for rescuing a small child from an apartment fire.

Judge Redding entered private practice in 1990 and concentrated on insurance and medical malpractice defense law before becoming a partner at Franklin & Prokopik, PC, managing the firm’s Hagerstown office. He took four years off from the practice of law to recover from injuries sustained in a serious car accident. He returned to work part-time in 2011 as a guardian ad litem, representing children in abuse and neglect cases, and returned to full-time practice in 2013, continuing his representation of children, as well as practicing criminal defense. In February 2017, Judge Redding joined the Public Defender Corporation for the Eastern Panhandle, where he worked until his appointment to the bench.

He has coached high school and AAU basketball for several years. He and his wife, Kristie Tobin Redding, live in Hedgesville. They have six adult children, nine grandchildren, and they also unofficially “adopted” one of his basketball players, caring for him from the 6th grade until he left for college in 2015.