Alena Chaban

Age: Editor’s note: If Oviedo Community News could not confirm the age for each candidate in a race, we omit the ages for all candidate in the race out of fairness.

Registered political party: N/A. The judicial seat is nonpartisan, and judicial rules of ethics prevent me from campaigning as part of any political party.

Where they live: Sweetwater Club (Wekiva area)

Where they work: Chaban Law Group

Prior work experience: “I, with my husband, opened our own law firm straight out of law school. I continue to practice there, as I have for several years. Prior to that, I interned in law school at a private personal injury firm and also in-house counsel for State Farm insurance.”

Prior political experience: N/A

Platform: Alena Chaban is running for Seminole County Court Judge, Group 6, on a platform of judicial preparation, fairness, and consistency, drawing on her career representing families, defendants, and everyday people across family law, criminal defense, and traffic court. Her campaign is built around the principle that every case deserves a judge who is calm, committed, and consistent, every time, regardless of who’s in front of the bench.

Why they are running, in three sentences: I’m running for Seminole County Court Judge, Group 6, because our community deserves a judge who is prepared, fair, and consistent, every case, every time. I’ve spent my career representing families, defendants, and everyday people in this county, so I know firsthand what’s at stake when a courtroom doesn’t run the way it should. This bench needs steady, principled judgment, and that’s exactly what I’ll bring on day one.

Most recent campaign finance report: $18,650

Summary of voting record: N/A

 Endorsements: I am proud that my campaign is backed by strong grassroots support. Dozens of local families and small businesses across Seminole County have volunteered to display my yard signs and distribute campaign materials in their neighborhoods and storefronts.

Campaign website

 Fun fact about the candidate: At age 10, I traveled to China to volunteer at a foster care home for special needs children. It was my first time overseas, and it planted the seed for the compassion-driven work I still do today as a Guardian ad Litem.

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Candidate Q&A: Candidate Q&A: The questions below are based on voter questions and expressed priorities. Each of the candidates within a race were asked the same questions and given the same amount of time to respond. The candidates’ answers were fact checked, checked for spelling and grammar but otherwise unedited.

What professional experiences have best prepared you for the bench?

I’ve spent my career in the courtroom, not just around it. In my firm, I’ve practiced family law, criminal defense, traffic law and estate planning. This means I’ve stood on both sides of nearly every kind of case that comes through Seminole County Court. I’ve represented parents fighting for time with their children, defendants facing the weight of the state and families trying to protect what they’ve built for the people they love.

That range matters. A county court judge doesn’t get the luxury of specializing, one morning it’s a landlord-tenant dispute, the next it’s a misdemeanor docket, the next it’s a small claims trial. I’ve been preparing for that breadth my entire career.

I’d also point to my work as a Guardian ad Litem, where my job is to represent a child’s best interests, not any adult’s agenda. That role requires exactly what I’d bring to the bench, which is listening carefully, setting aside assumptions, and making a recommendation based on what the evidence actually shows, not what’s easiest or most convenient.

What role should personal values play in judicial decision-making?

None, when it comes to the outcome of a case. A judge’s obligation is to apply the law as written and the facts as presented, not to substitute personal belief for legal analysis. That’s not a limitation, it’s the job. People don’t come to court hoping the judge agrees with them personally. They come hoping for someone who will follow the law fairly and consistently, regardless of who is standing in front of them.

Where personal character does matter is in how a judge conducts the courtroom, as in whether people are treated with respect, whether both sides are actually heard, and whether rulings are explained clearly enough that even the losing party understands why.

How do you balance precedent with evolving societal standards?

Precedent is not optional. It’s what gives people confidence that the law will be applied the same way tomorrow as it was yesterday. A trial court judge’s role is not to decide whether a precedent is still fashionable, it’s to apply controlling law as the appellate courts and legislature have written it.

That said, precedent is naturally tested and refined by higher courts as new facts and circumstances come before them. That’s how the system is designed to evolve, through the appellate process, not through individual trial judges deciding case by case which rules still apply to them. My job at the county court level is to apply the law faithfully and let that process work as intended, not to get ahead of it.

What steps do you take to avoid conflicts of interest?

I take this seriously both in practice now and in how I’m building my campaign. In my current practice, I run conflict checks before taking any matter, and I will not take a case when a personal or previous client relationship could reasonably call my impartiality into question, even if I believe I could still be fair.

As a candidate, that same discipline shows up in complying with Canon 7. I don’t personally solicit contributions or endorsements, campaign fundraising runs through my committee, and I’ve been careful about how attorney outreach is handled so it can’t be perceived as influencing anyone who might appear before me.

What barriers to justice do you see in the current system, and how would you address them?

The biggest barrier I see, especially in family court, is delay. I’ve had clients wait months just to get in front of a judge on custody or timesharing matters, meanwhile a parent isn’t seeing their children, and a case that should take weeks stretches into half a year or more. That backlog does not just inconvenience people. It actively harms families and children during the exact window when stability matters most.

The second barrier is access. Many people in county court, especially in small claims and traffic, do not have attorneys. If a courtroom is not run in a way that is clear and navigable for a self-represented person, justice becomes something only available to people who can afford a lawyer.

I’d address both by running an efficient docket, which means being prepared, starting on time, and making rulings promptly. I would also make sure my courtroom is a place where a self-represented litigant can understand what’s happening and why, without needing to already know the system to get a fair hearing.