"The Robing Room: CA State Judges

Hon. Stuart M. Rice	See Rating Details
Judge Superior Court
Los Angeles County	See Comments

Attorney Average Rating: 4.7 - 14 rating(s) Non-Attorney Average Rating: 5.0 - 3 rating(s)	Please send me alerts on this judge E-mail Address:

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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

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What others have said about Hon. Stuart M. Rice

Comments

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA42015
Rating:9.3

Comments:
Always tries to get it right. Very interested in a just result and works hard. Respectful of parties and counsel.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA36883
Rating:9.0

Comments:
Hard working, intelligent, intellectually very smart, articulate, compassionate, unbiased, pushes for settlement wherever he can do so without showing any prejudice, very well-spoken.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA35224
Rating:1.9

Comments:
THis judge is rude, cantankerous, biased and fails to live up to te the Judicial Cannons of ethics. He also fails to apply the law to all the facts of the case. He is totally biased towards banks and big corporations. He should be removed from the bench immediately

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA35221
Rating:8.4

Comments:
Judge Rise is a hard-working judge who will make every effort to help settle a case. Very practical and even-handed and understands the varied forms of the practice of law.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA33012
Rating:2.8

Comments:
How do we get such mediocre talent on the bench -- and I may be generous here. I have been before him on various matters during the past three years. Has no business being on the civil calendar at all. Makes knee jerk trial decisions and ill-reasoned pretrial decisions, and I won one. Go elsewhere.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA29479
Rating:1.5

Comments:
He fell asleep during trial. That should tell you everything you need to know. He missed the simplest point of ownership interest in a business dispute in his preliminary statement of decision. Had to rewrite it and explain the error was on oversight. ?? That was just the beginning. Doesn't seem to care much about facts or reviewing evidence. I was the plaintiff. He ruled in my favor (as he had to based on law) but, his bias due to his personal life seemed to take precedent. My attorney said it was the worst ruling he had ever seen.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA25444
Rating:5.8

Comments:
Judge Rice is in perpetual servitude to his calendar. Despite that, he is one of the slowest judges at Mosk. He takes a lot of time at CMCs asking what everyone needs, but if someone actually brings something up he just says "well, I can't rule on that now" and moves on. His rulings are not well researched and are generally always geared towards resolving a case, even if it is diametrically opposed to the law. His only goal is for cases to end and because of that he often ends up indulging boneheaded defense arguments because deep down he believes that the defense has superior resources and needs to be placated to achieve an end to a case. Because of that he is mostly unintentionally pro defense. He has a pretty good temperament and is well intentioned, but overall ill equipped to handle serious legal issues without issuing orders that are totally off the charts.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA19115
Rating:1.5

Comments:
Seriously ? I end up with a bad judge only to be replaced by an even worse judge. What is going on with these stupid judges who rule based on their own ideas and without any regard to the law as written by our legislature. This judge is a freaking joke. A dime a dozen lawyer who was undeservingly lucky enough to be chosen as a judge.

Other

Comment #: CA11743
Rating:10.0

Comments:
While watching proceedings for which I was not a litigant, I found Judge Rice's questions and decisions to be positive, discerning, and fair. I could about you and how nerve-racking it must be to stand in front of a judge to hear a case… And yet his attitude was very kind. I thought he should have a tv show.

Litigant

Comment #: CA10428
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
He would not make the prosecutor turn over the evidence for 6 months. There was no evidence.
He took a case without merit falsely claiming a dog bite. It was a case used to steal property and have the dog protection removed from the house.
He ruled in favor of liars who claimed dog bite and made me pay their false bills when they never appeared in court. It was a false case to steal a house we owned. They wrongfully killed the dog.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA7637
Rating:10.0

Comments:
Judge Rice has been involved in the Temporary Judge program for a lengthy period. He is an excellent communicator. He's respectful of attorneys and parties.

He's intelligent. He's articulate and has a good temperament.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA6946
Rating:2.3

Comments:
Serious misunderstanding of the role of a separate statement of undisputed material facts. Made factual determinations and is pro-business. Really stuck it to my client

Litigant

Comment #: CA6247
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Conservatorship proceeding

Immediately injected his own personal experience regarding caring for an elderly parent. Rude, never looked up from his desk, asked a few bizarre questions.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA6134
Rating:2.3

Comments:
Makes rulings beyond his jurisdictional authority, ignores basic civil procedure and legal principles.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA5998
Rating:1.8

Comments:
If you are a victim or minority, do not have your case heard by this judge. You could not do worse. File an "AFFIDAVIT OF PREJUDICE" with the clerk immediately and have the case transferred to another judge.
PEREMPTORY CHALLENGE TO JUDICIAL OFFICER
(Code Civ. Proc., § 170.6)

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA2174
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Agree that his knowledge of civil procedure is seriously lacking. I was in his department for an ex parte recently and watched him go through his law and motion calendar. He made numerous bizarre procedural goofs and had to be corrected by his clerk.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA1746
Rating:1.0

Comments:
I'm not sure this judge knows what he's doing? He controls his courtroom unlike any others I have seen. I agree with the other comment on this site stating that this judge is pro-business. This judge appears to be pro-anything but minority. He is biased. Do not waive jury trial in front of this judge.

Other

Comment #: CA1529
Rating:5.0

Comments:
Unfortunately, he was primarily a judge overseeing the criminal docket, who has recently been transferred to civil case calendar. Thus, his understanding of civil procedure - not to mention his lack of knowledge in real estate law - is lacking.

His "general inclination" is based solely on his pro-business stance.