"The Robing Room: CA State Judges

Hon. Samantha P. Jessner	See Rating Details
Judge Superior Court
Los Angeles County	See Comments

Attorney Average Rating: 2.3 - 24 rating(s) Non-Attorney Average Rating: 1.0 - 3 rating(s)	Please send me alerts on this judge E-mail Address:

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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

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What others have said about Hon. Samantha P. Jessner

Comments

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA52527
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This Judge is absolutely horrible and is by far the worst Judge I have ever been in front of. She lacks basic temperament doesn't know the law, even when you point it out to her. She should have never been allowed in this legal system and sickens me that she ruins people's lives. Has no shame.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA46691
Rating:1.0

Comments:
She is a miserable human being. I handled a prove up before her on a wrongful death case of a minor. The surviving mother was in the Courtroom weeping. When I asked her to assess general damages she demanded to know where my experts were. I had to explain to her that there are no experts for general damages. She then awarded a measly $1 Million for the wrongful death of this young man. The mom walked out of the Courtroom hysterical saying "how could she diminish the value of my son's life like that"? Jessner is despicable. Not sure how she ever got on the Bench.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA42585
Rating:3.6

Comments:
Judge Jessner will make you miserable if you go to trial in her courtroom. The only thing good I can say about her is that she is so mean and unprofessional that she probably drives more litigants to settle just to stay TF away from her. In my opinion, she is a certified narcissist. She likes money and big firms and big names best, so if that's you, be sure to name drop and make her think you're important. She will rail into attorneys on both sides though in a really belittling, personal, insulting, quasi-abusive manner. I have no idea what her politics are, but personality wise- She's cut from the same cloth as Donald Trump. If you can avoid her do it at all costs. The unpredictability of her temperament will cast a pall over your case, regardless of who's side she's on. I won in her courtroom and I will never ever appear in a case before her. She is toxic.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA39137
Rating:1.3

Comments:
I have been a clerk for 5 years, and we all talk about the Judges. She has the worst judicial temperament, she belittles people, and is completely incapable of applying the law. If she doesn't like you, she will bend over backwards to screw you. She performs sexual favors with other judges for her own personal and professional gain. On on Motion for Summary Hearing, her minute order said one thing, then at the hearing, she flipped and went off on the attorney, ruling against the other party. She will literally go out of her way to screw you, she has this mean, vendictive steak about her.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA33679
Rating:1.0

Comments:
If anyone is interested in removing her from being a judge it's possible, and you need to contact my email address as soon as possible

Prosecutor

Comment #: CA33578
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This judge has a terrible temperament, a condescending and entitled demeanor, and most appalling of all, presents herself as a person of color in certain circles though she is white-presenting and has all the privileges that whiteness carries. She seems particularly dismissive of other female practitioners.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA32845
Rating:4.3

Comments:
I have appeared in front of Jessner many times. I thought her behavior was within the wide latitude that judges are given. But, then, my mentor, the greatest attorney of have ever personally known said, "That judge doesn't do the right thing". This was from the winningest (he won everything almost always) but also the most truthful, fair, humane, patient, and caring attorney I have ever known. If her behavior was out-of-bounds for him, it had to be bad. I have always been someone who puts up with bad people because everyone is different. But his words sunk in and I stopped making excuses for her.

Litigant

Comment #: CA31497
Rating:1.0

Comments:
The best you can hope for is to 170.6 her.
She was appointed by Gov. Terminator and that's it.

I agree w/every other low rating.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA24155
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Judge Samantha Jessner committed serious crimes in the cases of Alisa Spitzberg and Melissa Balin. It's a tragedy that Jessner is still on the bench though thank god she has been demoted from the criminal courts. She is a menace to society

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA19858
Rating:1.5

Comments:
It's not that Judge Jessner is pro plaintiff or pro defendant. She is pro-money, pro-prestige, pro- big firm. The best way to put it is she is pro-Goliath. I'm not sure whether she supports Trump, but they are of the same ilk. They "mask" their considerable insecurities by self aggrandizement and insults. There is nothing kind about this woman. The kindest thing I can say about her is that I feel sorry for her. You can tell that the way she speaks to others is the way that others - likely one parent or both - treated her as a child. To walk into her courtroom is to walk into the vortex of her trauma. Something she is still living through, projecting, and spewing onto others. If you are a woman and you think it is a good sign that you have a woman judge, someone you can learn from and look up to---YOU ARE WRONG. She is Exhibit A in a presentation on internalized misogyny. I won my client's jury trial, but it came at a great, unnecessary, psychological cost, as a result of her unprofessional, sadistic tendencies. Spare yourself the experience if you can.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA17924
Rating:1.3

Comments:
Judge Jessner has the worst temperament I've ever witnessed in a judge after seventeen years of practice. Avoid her at all cost, especially if you are not "big law". A former big-law lawyer herself, she has an unabashed bias for big law firms and lavishes praise on them. Otherwise, she relishes in yelling out disgusting vitriol against attorneys. Her yelling attacks are biased towards personal insult over legitimate criticism, saying things to the effect of, "you belong in therapy." Indeed, in our case in front of her representing a small business plaintiff, thank God she was not the trier of fact. We won handily with a unanimous jury on multiple causes of action, including difficult fraud-based ones and an award of about treble punitive damages. But based on her ruling on what she arbitrarily considered reasonable attorneys' fees, we did nothing for our client's significant victory. Never mind that we won on every single cause of action that we decided to bring before the jury, and in the course of over a year built all the key facts that allowed us to prove up vicious contractual fraud. In laying out defamatory personal attacks against us in her ruling, she misstated the record several times, a matter on which I intend to file a formal complaint. Under her arbitrary rationale on what she considered "reasonable fees" for a boutique law firm, no small business or consumer would EVER be able to find adequate representation in Los Angeles. She also sometimes publishes tentative rulings last-minute (the morning of as the morning hearings start), perhaps to reduce the time an attorney might have to argue against her personal vitriol.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA17920
Rating:2.0

Comments:
Judge Jessner is an exceedingly unkind, unfair, despotic, temperamental and irrational person. She presents as a true narcissist. She has a toxic temperament and you never know where she will direct her ire. She is filled with hate and self loathing and she lashes out at attorneys with over-the-top gratuitous insults that you can never see coming, and of course, there is no arguing with her. Like others who have posted reviews about her, this is the first time that I have felt compelled to post a review. As someone else has said, I will be haunted for the rest of my life by my experience trying a case in front of her. Oh, and we WON our case and got punitive damages and attorneys fees. Nevertheless, the overriding impression of my experience will be the toxic hatred she spewed in my and my partner's direction. She lambasted us with unnecessary personal insults and made a real show of doing it. You can tell that it makes her feel big and important to put others down. It made our victory bitter rather even that bittersweet. I will NEVER go before her again, and I advise anyone reading this to try to get a different judge.

Litigant

Comment #: CA12665
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Just another horrible Stanley Mosk Judge. 170.6 immed. or face the incompetence of a moron.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA12578
Rating:1.0

Comments:
the only good thing to be said about Judge Samantha Jessner is thank god she was demoted from the criminal courts, after a series of outrages. As bad as a civil judge as she is at least she no longer can affect the liberty of those who can't line her pockets.

Other

Comment #: CA11902
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
This judge is a mental case. Not sure if she is experiencing a medical issue such as a hormonal imbalance but 170.6 immed.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA11169
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Judge Jessner is a pretty good judge. She also has a sense of humor. I would rate her a 7 out of 10. Considering this is the downtown courthouse she is far better than what you can come across. She is not wishy washy and calls it fair.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA10722
Rating:1.5

Comments:
She does not know the law, not even the basics of hearsay. As for employment law, no clue, she just makes things up, regardless of any cites you put in front of her. She is also a very mean person, with, what seems a very strong inferiority complex, which makes her really angry if you challenge her. The very worst judge in Downtown LA.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA10368
Rating:9.0

Comments:
Judge Jessner is a stickler for the law. If you have the law on your side and good facts to support it then she is the judge you want to be in front of.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA10228
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Judge Jessner is not only a notoriously dirty judge but she is famous in the courts for coming on to female clerks. When the married or disinterested clerks reject Sam's advances, Sam retaliates by getting them fired and also by threatening them with all sorts of nonsense. I have nothing against gay ladies but what Judge Jessner has been doing for years is just plain wrong. She wants to have her cake and eat it to and I wonder if her husband is aware of her sexual preference.

If not for her mother's connections she would be in jail for stalking and harassment. dang, that courthous is a cesspool.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA10216
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Judge Jessner is condescending, and beyond disrespectful in the way she speaks with attorneys in open court. She should be ashamed herself. She is the reason why misanthropes exist. This is the first time I have felt compelled to post a review about a judge. Absolute disgrace to humanity.

Litigant

Comment #: CA10040
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
This woman is so full herself that she cannot think properly. She will bow to powerful influences and nail you no matter how right you are. One can only look at her face to understand who she is. It is hard to explain how bad she is. If you are up against a powerful entity, be sure she will nail you. Disqualify her immediately. Find something but do it because she will ruin your entire life.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA8598
Rating:6.0

Comments:
Somewhat frustrating when dealing with garbage/frivolous cases - provides ample and unnecessary leave to amend, yet sets trial dates and discovery cutoffs far too early in light of her granting leave to amend multiple times. On multiple occasions, it requires ex parte requests to continue trial dates that should never have been set to begin with.
All in all, not bad - her rulings are concise and clear, but she doesn't pull the trigger and kick the bad cases quickly enough

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA7373
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Judge Jessner needs to be off the bench.Her rulings appear to be a product of bribery and corruption. No regard for the law. No regard for other human beings. Disgusting lady.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA7341
Rating:1.0

Comments:
I was willing to believe that it was just me or perhaps I was just being singled out. However, after reading the other comments I am obviously not alone. The comment provided by CA7159 on 06/19/15 is EXACTLY how I would write my comment. He/she is dead on. For those of you who might have forgotten, some years ago, an examination of the functionality of the state courts was conducted. LA Superior not only received one of the lowest ratings but prompted the comment: "It is a cesspool of injustice." This judge is precisely the sort of person who contributes to that sort of comment and rating. FWI... I have been in and out of courts for 37 years and this is the first time I felt compelled to fill one of these things out.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA7159
Rating:2.3

Comments:
Judge Jessner is by far the worst judge I've encountered in many many years as a civil litigation attorney. Its not just her rulings, which are bad enough. It is her temperament - she is a person who should not be on the bench because she just doesn't have the personality for it. She views herself as an infallible deity and she is unwilling to admit a mistake. She does have a decent sense of humor if you get her on one of her good days.

First, her rulings are atrocious and have no regard for the law. You can quote her case after case after case, and she'll concoct some way to deny a dispositive motion, even if the non-moving party didn't bring the issue up. She'll find it for them. Even if its a restatement section from the 1970s that was never adopted in California. She has a clear and unabashed bias toward plaintiffs. If you're a plaintiffs' attorney, she's a great draw. The best you could get. If you're a defendant, she is well worth burning your peremptory immediately upon assignment.

She constantly complains about being overworked, yet has no ability to control her own calendar. She spends 30 minutes in her morning calendar on the most mundane issues on one case. She lets plaintiffs' attorneys drone on and on about things that have nothing to do with the issues at hand (defense attorneys are promptly cut off).

She shows no respect for attorney schedules. She insults non-English-speaking attorneys from the bench. She makes fun of counsel. And for all of this, she picks on the most minute procedural defects (as long as you're a defendant - never with plaintiffs).

I'll close by relating an exchange I saw between her and another attorney I observed during a recent appearance. After a tediously long oral argument on a motion to compel (on a motion that could have been resolved in 10 minutes), one of the attorneys remarked that her ruling was not fair, and explained exactly why it was not fair. She says, "Counsel, there is only one person who needs to think my rulings are fair." I expected her to say, "the Court of Appeals," because that would be the right answer. No, she says, "Me." That sums up Judge Jessner right there. She has an incredibly inflated view of herself, and it is not justified. She desperately needs to have a few appellate court rulings finding she has abused her discretion. That might help. Until then, avoid her like the plague.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA6985
Rating:3.1

Comments:
Very biased lazy Judge with unwillingness to follow the law. Does not care aboout Justice and is willing to rule against anyone who she decided to dislike. Has deva arogant atttitude. Issues tentatives but does not post them until your matter is called so you cannot evaluate and question anything she presents. Get the law wrong a lot! Stay away from this witch

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA6667
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Since there are no 0 ratings I cannot give jessner even 1. Awful would be a compliment for this peace of junk judge. I feel bad for these ( and sone are dear friends) who retired because they could not stand anymore the politics in the legal system. Even though they were at the age of retirement, they would have stayed a bit longer but could not deal with what justice is becoming and sometines has already become.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA6666
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
I read the reviews about this dishonorable jessner. I will soon post what she did and still doing in my case. I will exposed her publicly very soon and drag her name in dog crap. If she thinks she is God, i will bring her down where she belongs: JAIL. Corrupted, incompetent, evil, arrogant, will ruin one's life and opee on that person with her stupid smile. She will learn what it is to mess up with a french political refugee. She picked up on the wrong family. She started a legal war. She will be punished by her won weapon: the law is the law and she will learn it the hard way.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA6178
Rating:7.6

Comments:
In a civil case, Judge was professional, researched the law and allowed both sides to present their case in a fair manner. Be prepared to state the legal basis to any objection you raise and have supporting case law handy.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA5318
Rating:1.8

Comments:
She is rude and unprofessional. Each time I have gone before her it has been obvious she did not read the moving papers. She makes offhanded comments in the galley as her "rulings" rather than discussing matters in chambers or taking the bench, likely so that her comments do not become part of the record. She is undeserving of the title "Honorable".

Court Staff

Comment #: CA4312
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Judge Jessner is a psychopath. Her ability to make life-altering rulings is a tragedy. Her mother is the head of the Bar (Patricia Philips), and this makes Sammy Jessner think she can get away with anything. She will go down in history as one of the vilest and most dangerous judges to ever sit on the bench. (And she has a lot of competition!)

Litigant

Comment #: CA3919
Rating:3.0

Comments:
She really is what these people are saying about her. I went in to get my gun rights back after the LAPD put me on a 5150 for 2 hours and then let me go because they realized it was absurd. The DA in the mental health department agreed to submit to my request and recommended that the court give me back my rights. She still denied me. When I told her politely that she had no justification for doing so, she said, "I'm in charge." I then told her: "I'll be contacting the Judicial Affairs Committee, your Honor." She then retracted her verdict and recused herself. The judge in the courtroom right next door immediately agreed to my request and I had my rights back in five minutes. She is truly a very, very scary woman, considering that there are thousands of women just like her nationwide ruining people's lives.

Other

Comment #: CA2296
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Insane.
EXTREMELY rude to petitioners and has no respect for the law or even HER courtroom employees. Might as well jump to the State appeals court if you are within a 10-foot pool radius of this nut.

Litigant

Comment #: CA1748
Rating:1.0

Comments:
The pits. Evil, biased, and dangerous. She is out of a nightmare. I will be haunted for life due to the vile choices of this Judge Samantha Jessner.
Ruthless, amoral, and phony to the core.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA1384
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Samantha Jessner is a corrupt and disgusting woman.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA1177
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Judge Samantha Jessner is a shill for the prosecution. She will give them anything they want whenever they want it. She is willing to destroy people to further her own agenda. Disgusting representative of the judiciary. I understand she is under investigation.