The Hon. Eric J. Wildman is a judge for the 5th Judicial District Court of Idaho. He was appointed to the bench by former Governor Butch Otter on December 9, 2009, filling a vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. R. Barry Wood.
The 5th Judicial District encompasses Blaine, Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka, and Twin Falls Counties. Wildman has held assignments in Gooding County and Twin Falls County, sitting on the Twin Falls County Drug and Veterans Treatment Courts. He has also handled all statewide appeals from the Idaho Department of Water Resources, and he has presided over the Snake River Basin Adjudication, the Coeur D’Alene–Spokane River Basin Adjudication, the Palouse River Basin Adjudication, the Clark-Fork Pend Oreille Basin Adjudication, and the Bear River Basin Adjudication.
Prior to his appointment, Wildman was a staff attorney for the Snake River Basin Adjudication and the Coeur d’Alene-Spokane River Basin Adjudication, a position to which he was named in 1999.
Wildman earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah in 1989. He then completed a J.D. at the University of Idaho College of Law in 1994.
After graduating from law school, Wildman began his legal career as a judicial law clerk to the Hon. Barry Wood of the 5th Judicial District Court. He subsequently entered into private practice in Gooding.
He was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado. He and his wife, Becky, have two children. When not presiding over legal proceedings, he enjoys skiing, backpacking, climbing, and riding motorcycles.