A 1945 graduate of Farragut High School and a 1955 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, Cerda was appointed a Cook County magistrate in 1965 and an associate judge in 1966. He was appointed to the circuit court in 1972 and elected in 1976. Assigned to the Appellate Court in 1989, Justice Cerda was elected chair of the 1st District executive committee in 1996. He received a DePaul Law Alumni Service Award in 1997. The founding president of the Mexican American Lawyers Association and a charter member of its scholarship fund, Cerda was on hand for the merger that created the Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois in 1996. Its first president was his son, Chicago attorney David A. Cerda.