"The Robing Room: CA State Judges

Hon. Rita Coyne Federman	See Rating Details
Judge Superior Court
San Luis Obispo County	See Comments

Attorney Average Rating: 4.8 - 2 rating(s) Non-Attorney Average Rating: 2.0 - 10 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

Please type what you see below:

Not an even number!

What others have said about Hon. Rita Coyne Federman

Comments

Other

Comment #: CA32282
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This woman has absolutely no right deciding the fate of children in family court. She blatantly allows and condones abuse despite black and white evidence in front of her. This is her sick and twisted playground and our children are her pawns. She needs to go for the sake of our children's lives!

Litigant

Comment #: CA31571
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Judge Federman is calm and keeps chaos out of her courtroom. BUT, she is not child-centered, psychologically minded or trauma-informed. She appeared to come to a quick conclusion and her ruling highlighted only evidence that supported her conclusion. Many, many, many important pieces of evidence and credible testimony. She has a long history of placing children with the unhealthy parent, punishing the healthy parent for advocacy and abuse reporting. She keeps out critical witnesses and evidence on very strict legal discretion. This is not appropriate in family law and leads to abusers hiding critical information in the search to find the best interests of the child. I worry deeply about her emotional health and personal bias in her cases.

Other

Comment #: CA26494
Rating:1.0

Comments:
I upheld rule of law for 25 years wearing a badge. I grew up next to Bill Fredman, a great judge. This judge is so incredibly out of touch with reality and non qualified to sit on a bench. The sad thing is all the competent judges know this. I feel horribly bad For the attorneys who have to work through her court. Horrible judge.

Other

Comment #: CA20065
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This is the worse Judge when it comes to children. She should be removed from the courts immediately. She should learn more about mediation before taking children away from their own grandparents. I look forward to the day that I can walk into her court room with my grandchildren and let have tell her what they did to them. We were very loving grandparents who have NO rights in the law and she gave us a 3 year order against our OWN daughter and grandchildren. Our daughter has been a liar and an addict for 23 years and this Judge did not read or listen to what we had to wrote or said. She gave everyone in court room that day 3 years! That must be her magic number. How and why would you take loving parents away from your own family. She doesn't know anything about mediation. Mediation can help all families! Maybe she should go back to school and learn how to help families and children NOT tear them apart further! We are appalled at this Jugde. What a sad thing to do to children & grandchildren who have NO voice in the world! They need love more now then ever. I hope this judge someday gets help... We will see our grandchildren again one day and will have to explain this lady did not know what she is doing and did to us and them! Very said day for our grandchildren...

Other

Comment #: CA19682
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Biased against fathers and the law. If she doesn't like you watch out. It does not matter what you do or how you are she will hold everything against you even if the law and evidence is on your side. She has no business being in family law. She gets appealed quite a bit and it's for a reason.

Litigant

Comment #: CA18142
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
I’m absolutely horrified by the outcome of a custody trial. This judge does not care about the true well being of children. I think CPS should be involved in very serious legal custody battles. There seems to be no common sense in the law. This judge does not understand victims of liars or victims of people with personality disorders. She has removed a two year old baby girl who is still nursing from a highly capable mother. This baby has never been away from her mother who is one of the most upstanding citizens, and placed this baby in the care of a highly incompetent, alcoholic, abusive, and neglectful father who lives several counties away. This case should have called for an outside investigation. This judge looks at law like a game and who plays the game in court. Meanwhile real lives are being destroyed and the future of an innocent child has been forever changed. This judge should be jailed for inflicting trauma on a child. She took a baby who had never been away from her extremely devoted, loving, patient mother and gave to alcoholic father who has barely seen the baby and mother was not allowed to see baby for 8 days then no overnight visits. This poor child does not deserve that. This baby is so attached to her mother. The law talks about a fathers rights but not his responsibility or the baby’s rights. Protect our children! Use common sense. Don’t punish the baby.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA15986
Rating:3.7

Comments:
Judge Federman moves cases along quickly and decides them quickly. She is not afraid to show her bias in a case and does not tolerate people wasting her time. She becomes very difficult if you want to present your case other than how she wants it to be presented. She doesn't want people to present evidence that is outside what she has already determined to be the issues and the outcome in the case making it very difficult to litigate case before her. She does not seem to understand CA Family Law very well and this is evident in her decisions, comments and approaches to many cases.

Litigant

Comment #: CA15747
Rating:2.0

Comments:
Was told by the court clerk it was OK to appear by telephone. On day of hearing, judge refused to let me appear by telephone so I had to stand silent and listen to my ex lie her ass off for 20 minutes while the judge lobbed her mushball questions to answer. I was tempted to just hang up the phone five minutes into it.

I'll bet you can guess who won that hearing, right? Totally unfair judge. I was misled by her clerk. Biased against men I believe.

Other

Comment #: CA14399
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Worst legal person ever met,not pro at all,bigot,rude,does not listen ,does not belong in court room .

Other

Comment #: CA14398
Rating:1.0

Comments:
I watched this judge use obvious sex discrimination against a male and would not listen.Had her own agenda and does not belong in family court for the sake of children.

Other

Comment #: CA13813
Rating:1.0

Comments:
I watched this judge take a baby from its mothers arms in the courtroom and hand it over to a outlaw motorcycle gang member and the person who raped and beat the child's mother, because he had no record on paper. These people do not investigate anything. Worst judge I've ever seen

Other

Comment #: CA13144
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Judge Federman seems to have no understanding of family law. It appears as though she refuses to review any exhibits brought before her and instead makes rash decisions based on very little fact. I personally witnessed her remove custody from a mother for having had a 7 yr relationship and two kids with a man who in the last yr of their relationship started drinking and becoming violent so she left him. Like holes in the door violent, not actually physically harming. And Judge Federman took custody of her 10 yr old, granting it to her ex husband who had abused and raped the mother on multiple occasions during their 10 yr marriage because the mother couldn't prove that this ex boyfriend wouldn't be around. The mother gas no choice! She has 2 kids with him so its not like she can completely remove him from her life! She already denied him access to her home and refuses to meet for exchanges at the home. What the hell!? And all of this was based on an ex parte that her abusive ex husband filed based on information he received from the very ex boyfriend that the Judge is saying she can't prove he won't be around! I don't even understand how this happened

Other

Comment #: CA12334
Rating:10.0

Comments:
She is a very prepared Judge

Other

Comment #: CA10239
Rating:3.0

Comments:
She does not understand high-conflict divorce/custody battle situations at all -- puts more emphasis on parental rights versus what is best for the child. Doesn't seem incredibly bright and doesn't seem to have a deep understanding of family law.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA6517
Rating:5.9

Comments:
Seemed to be fair in the beginning but professional courtesy and conformity along with group think won her loyalty over her oath of office.