"The Robing Room: CA State Judges

Hon. Robert Leslie Hess	See Rating Details
Judge Superior Court
Los Angeles County	See Comments

Attorney Average Rating: 4.6 - 8 rating(s) Non-Attorney Average Rating: - 0 rating(s)	Please send me alerts on this judge E-mail Address:

Add your own rating

E-Mail Address ()

Confirm E-mail Address

Zip

Occupation

Add a comment only

Only items marked with (*) are averaged into the displayed overall rating.

General Rating Criteria

* Temperament		(1=Awful,10=Excellent)
* Scholarship		(1=Awful,10=Excellent)
* Industriousness		(1=Not at all industrious,10=Highly industrious)
* Ability to Handle Complex Litigation		(1=Awful,10=Excellent)
* Punctuality		(1=Chronically Late,10=Always on Time)
* General Ability to Handle Pre-Trial Matters		(1=Not all Able, 10=Extremely Able)
* General Ability as a Trial Judge		(1=Not all Able, 10=Extremely Able)
Flexibility In Scheduling		(1=Completely Inflexible,10=Very Flexible)

Criminal Rating Criteria (if applicable)

* Evenhandedness in Criminal Litigation		(1=Demonstrates Bias,10=Entirely Evenhanded)
General Inclination Regarding Bail		(1=Pro-Defense,10=Pro-Government)
Involvement in Plea Discussions		(1=Not at all Involved, 10=Very Involved)
General Inclination in Criminal Cases Pretrial Stage		(1=Pro-prosecution,10=Pro-defense)
General Inclination in Criminal Cases Trial Stage		(1=Pro-prosecution,10=Pro-defense)
General Inclination in Criminal Cases Sentencing Stage		(1=Pro-prosecution,10=Pro-defense)

Civil Rating Criteria (if applicable)

* Evenhandedness in Civil Litigation		(1=Not at all Evenhanded,10=Entirely Evenhanded)
Involvement in Settlement Discussions		(1=Not at all Involved,10=Very Involved)
General Inclination		(1=Pro-defendant, 10=Pro-plaintiff)

Comments

What others have said about Hon. Robert Leslie Hess

Comments

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA3614
Rating:9.1

Comments:
Very fair and smart Judge. He is not a great Judge for anyone who is unprepared or does not know their case.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA3042
Rating:1.6

Comments:
Horrible judicial temperament. Mumbles obscenitites. Seems to hate women. Completely biased against plaintiffs. Also, the most inefficient judge with his time I have ever seen.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA2140
Rating:1.3

Comments:
I note that prior ratings have given this judge an average of 5!?? No way - he is a total idiot (see infra, bottom line). The other lawyers rating him must be also. When sitting at law & motion matters, hearing him go on & on & on with other lawyers on other cases, it is clear that he is simply to stupid to understand the basics facts & how they relate to the law on the issues before him. If he were capable of keeping an open mind, which he isn't, he might be able to learn enough to understand the cases before him. But he is simply to stupid & too closed minded.

Bottom Line: He does not even know the most basic tenants of civil litigation, such as, for example, the 9 possible statutory grounds for a demurrer [CCP sec. 430.10(a)-(i)]. Such ignorance must be deemed "stupidity" when you consider that he rules on demurrers virtually ever day!???

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA1300
Rating:3.8

Comments:
Judge Hess comes across as very rough, but in some situations he is reluctant to make the hard decisions or to reject the barest of excuses. I have seen an attorney blatently ignore court orders for payment of sanctions and deadlines without consequence. His case management conferences do run for 30 minutes, and you'd think he was taking your deposition about work product and theories of the case.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA1212
Rating:6.0

Comments:
Hardworking judge dedicated to reaching the correct result. Attitude from the bench could be a bit nicer, but I'll take smart and curmudgeonly over dumb and sweet any day.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA549
Rating:7.4

Comments:
Has an ego. Be prepared to wait in court. He invites counsel to sit and chat. The upside is that you will get a chance to argue if the tentative is against you. The downside is that it doesn't seem to matter.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA10
Rating:1.3

Comments:
This judge is never on time - he comes out maybe at 9:00 a.m. He'll then spend an average of 30-45 minutes for each motion or case management conference. He spends an inordinate amount of time with circular discussions about obscure details of the case, which gives him an opportunity to 1)allow counsel to argue with him after which he won't change his mind, sometimes going 2 or 3 go-arounds on the same point, and 2) gives him an opportunity to opine about how much he knows about litigation and world in general. After having suffered through 3 of these case management conferences on the same case, I had the pleasure of going back for one last trial setting conference to find that the this guy remembered nothing of previous discussions or previous filings. At the trial setting conference he professed complete indifference and lack of recall and set a quick trial date. Add to that the fact that he patently misread the substantive law in an attempt to bluff opposing counsel, and you've got a jurist who will definitely get it wrong.