"The Robing Room: CA State Judges

Hon. Colleen K. Sterne	See Rating Details
Judge Superior Court
Santa Barbara County	See Comments

Attorney Average Rating: 2.4 - 15 rating(s) Non-Attorney Average Rating: 1.0 - 9 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. Colleen K. Sterne

Comments

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA55020
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This judge is bias to an extreme without truly investigating the persons situation. I don't think she has time and I think she is inherently hostile to human beings in general.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA53599
Rating:1.0

Comments:
It takes 3-4 months to get a simple hearing date.Your opponents file their opposition 6 court days before the hearing. You file your reply brief one day later which this judge ignores. This is the opposite of justice. The judge has no trial dates open for a year. What a joke.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA53214
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Judge Sterne is biased and unfair to the point of being entirely unethical. She schedules every matter out by at least 3 months so there is no chance of a speedy trial. Death by waiting. She is so rude and prejudiced as to make the entire process a complete mockery. Will she recuse herself due to her bias? Unlikely. There is no justice to be found in her court.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA53165
Rating:1.0

Comments:
The comment below is 100% correct. This is a judge who will cut off a party from putting any object on the record yet allow the opposition to late file their pleadings to one's severe detriment. Very hateful judge. Totally biased. 100% prejudiced. Unfair. Cares not for the facts or applicable law.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA53061
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Hates women. Makes litigants waits 3 months for a hearing on any motion. Cuts female litigants off at the knees and silences them if they try and put anything on the record. So narcissistic and selfish-important. Makes huge legal errors all the time, but blind to her own errors and ignorance. Awful.

Litigant

Comment #: CA48811
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This woman isn’t fit to judge a cattle call. She has obvious bias towards the attorneys who appear regularly before her[Redacted by Ed.] .
She conserved my mother, on the word of two individuals who spent under one hour combined with her. My mother saw several doctors regularly who refused to state there was any mental incapacity; she was sharp until the end. The two that said Mom was senile - a hateful daughter who wasn’t allowed in the home, and the doctor she hired to claim senility. “What can it hurt to conserve her?” This foolish judge stated, while stripping my mother of her rights. What a stupid thing to say, when non-chalantly stripping a person of their rights. Mom died from fright, being put into the care of a daughter who was out to take her estate, even having written about how this daughter would surely attempt to do this when she saw a weakness. She wrote in the trust that this daughter would stop at nothing to take over everything, and asked that any judge who one day might have this issue in front of them take heed that this daughter had been attempting to take power of her money for over twenty years. A trust of 30 years was then ignored, thirty years of planning and the same wishes updated 5 times, in favor of a section of the trust which was never in effect, those wishes were shown to possibly be the desire of the deceased for 2 months. 30 years of documented estate planning, the final version of the trust maintaining the same - this judge decided to make the version of the trust that represented almost an opposing view point, and was early in in the trust revisions, and that the deceased had immediately changed back to the long standing desires which made up 100 pages and 30 years of planning, these mercurial and quickly revoked distributions were adjudicated as the deceased final wishes, despite the many amendments which came after this uncharacteristic change, which stated the familiar and constant scenario which the deceased held for 30 years. She ignores the law, has massive bias, doesn’t address the relevant issues and laws, and does whatever strikes her fancy, which is usually what the oft appearing attorneys want. If you think you’ll get justice or fairness in her court, you haven’t met the stultifying mind and outrageous ego of this high school loser who is finally feeling she matters. She is ruining lives daily. Everyone on this page needs to write to the people who actually care when judges ignore the law. I think this judge likes turning everything on its head - ignoring the law. She must be removed immediately.

Litigant

Comment #: CA41370
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Judge Sterne allowed a cousin, a psychopath paralegal represented by the attorneys she works for, to rob me of my inheritance. This psychopath simply walked-in one day and tricked my elderly frail father as he suffered from the effects of untreated Hepatocellular Carcinoma as his mental state devolved into hallucinations, confusion, delirium and hepatic encephalopathy’s such that he no longer knew who he was, to sign over his estate to her in a Trust she created with the help of one of her attorneys to replace my father’s Trust of 20 years that disinherited this psycho and her family. 2 days after he signed this Trust she drove him to a Hospice where he died hours later. She then hid his death. There was no funeral, service or remembrance of any kind and he lay at the funeral home for 10 days before burial with no one in attendance or knowing he died. It was only by accident weeks later that I found out when Social Security sent me a letter. Because my father years before had taken out a Reverse Mortgage for the sole-purpose of protecting his property from this psycho and her family whom already had taken most of his money, it was to make sure I would inherit it as his significant-other and sole-surviving child, this psycho petitioned an Order Confirming Trust Assets. In disbelief and where a Lab Monkey would have thrown out the Petition and call for a criminal investigation, Sterne allowed-in this Trust rife with the usual extensive Trust legal jargon and a tiny paragraph disinheriting me. Sterne despite such statements in this Petition as 'Settlor was gravely ill when he created his Trust' and obvious perjuries of 'what my father wished and intended and expressed to her [psycho]’, as well as missing and hidden assets, Sterne simply ruled in one sentence in favor of the psycho that I was disinherited. "There are many Paths to the Well" said Sterne at the Cate Convocation in April of 2018, "and my career has been one that makes a difference in daily lives, the truth will out." Sad.

Litigant

Comment #: CA36909
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Judge Sterne completely ignored the evidence of the plaintiffs, and was absolutly one-sided throughout the case.

Other

Comment #: CA35525
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This judge wakes up in the morning and decides her cases merely as a matter of opinion shes lazy and gives no attention to facts especially when the numbers have been placed in front of her

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA33771
Rating:3.7

Comments:
Judge Sterne wants everyone to settle because she is absolutely incapable of making any kind of decision, and certainly not one based on legal precedent or any articulable legal standard. If you are involved in civil litigation your best bet is to settle (and give her what she wants) - don’t expect any real justice because your case will be a never ending string of continuances and delays, spanning years and years before you get anywhere close to a trial or any type of decision. Judge Sterne also does not like wealthy people - which she speaks of in her position as an episcopalian priest - you can find videos of her sermons online. Do don’t expect her to have any sympathy for the exorbitant attorney fees and costs incurred as a direct result of her unceasing delays and decision waffling. Also don’t expect her to understand anything complex - she’s simply incapable. If she ever was, I do not think she is in a particularly spry state of mental acuity at this point in her life/career. Probably time for retirements

Litigant

Comment #: CA31943
Rating:1.0

Comments:
She falls asleep during trials, she cannot make decisions and when she does they are after much stalling and yawning. Those final decisions are not made according to the law they are made according to how she feels that day and who is standing in front of her and if she favors them! Most of those decisions are to continue, continue and continue the case! She is completely incapable of being a judge and should be removed. My case has been going for years! She has mentioned that fact many times, but continues to delay a decision. She continues to leave my very abused granddaughter where she is being abused because the woman CANNOT make a decision!
This will not be the end of my actions forward.
I want her removed. She is putting children in danger while she sits on her hands because she doesn’t want to make a decision or more than likely is incapable!
I am disgusted with the legal system because of her! She sits on her throne and thinks she is above everyone. She is an awful person!
De-throne her!

Litigant

Comment #: CA31931
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Many years ago, Judge Sterne denied my request for a permanent restraining order on my ex-boyfriend that is a violent felon shortly after the first permanent restraining order expired. I went before her without legal representation on my first attempt at the second restraining order and believed she would grant the order of protection given the details outlined in the first protection order some three years earlier and what had occurred this time around, but she denied my case. I was afraid for my safety and this woman could not have cared less. Judge Sterne finally granted the now second permanent restraining order only AFTER I had hired an attorney. Terrible judge and a terrible person. I feared for my safety and had restless nights due to her unfathomable initial ruling.

Other

Comment #: CA31165
Rating:1.0

Comments:
judge sterne offends the entire US legal system by sitting at the table for real judges in he way it looks and moves

Other

Comment #: CA28211
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Was in the galley, waiting for a friend's case to come up, when I heard something I couldn't believe.

A tenant had asked for emergency relief, and Judge Sterne stated, the pleadings weren't legible, she couldn't make it out, except that it was about an issue of no drinking water.

The tenant, said no water at all, amd that their keys weren't returned to them, after something happened, I think an eviction was thrown out.

Judge Sterne stated that the relief was denied, and that the tenant had to submit a legible copy.

There was other stuff talked about, which I don't know the context of.

How can a Judge, deny relief, on a pleading it stated it couldn't read?

Also, how is not having water, not an emergency needing immediate relief? No landlord showed up, and there were a bunch of attorneys, but none seemed to be or represent a landlord, and no one even argued that the water issue wasn't critical, or had been addressed.

I got 3 takeaways here:

1) Judge Sterne should be disrobed. Denying relief, without reading the complaint first, is the very definition of prejudice, and judges are supposed to be impartial, and to review all of the evidence before rendering judgment.

2) It appears Judge Sterne, hates tenants, or maybe just that one, because I couldn't see a landlord, and I thought if opposing party doesn't even bother to show up, that the complaining party wins.

3) Judge Sterne is a dangerous judge, the tenant said no water at all, and that's a fire hazard, and public health hazard, and I'm pretty sure requires a building to be condemned, if there's no fix for it. Why would a Judge place a community at increased fire risk? If it is solely due to prejudice against tenants, or because of dislike for that specific tenant, it doesn''t matter, judges should not endanger the public, due to their prejudices!

In closing, I saw a previous comment about Judge Sterne playing god....

Considering that she's intentionally permitting a public fire hazard to not be addressed, the risk that she's playing god is dramatically increased. If the the house catches fire, and there's no water, what about the neighbors? If they've got a kid, and their house catches fire, that's kid death, is due to this Judge's prejudice, for whatever reason she has the prejudice, and I hope that the tenant finds some other way to fix things, because obviously, Judge Sterne has something wrong in her head, to where law doesn't matter, protecting the public doesn't matter, just whatever her petty personality shortcomings are. It's abuse of power, and it creates risks for all of us...

Does anyone monitor these judges or do anything about it?

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA24011
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Sterne validated an illegal retaliatory lawsuit - KNOWN TO BE ILLEGAL - with a 6-figure “default judgement” within 2 weeks of the lawsuit being served in her court right in front of her. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE PROVIDE OVERSIGHT TO THIS JUDGE WHO IS PLAYING GOD AND NOT FOLLOWING THE RULES!? This judge is allowing a RAPIST TO SUE HIS VICTIM AND HANDING HIM THE WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA22719
Rating:9.8

Comments:
Whether she rules in my favor or against me, I always know that she is trying to do the right thing for the people involved in the case. Everyone gets a chance to be heard. She carefully listens and considers the evidence and argument.

Other

Comment #: CA22195
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Judge Sterne is evidently afflicted by a total absence of impartiality, intelligence and with full inability to fairly use the US laws, she should be removed from her pitiful assignment so badly and insufficiently performed

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA19741
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Astonishing level of incompetence, arrogance, insecurity and abject stupidity. Incredibly pompous,engaging in desperate attempts to appear intellectual and intelligent, miserably failing at both. insensitive and caught up in an alternate reality to which she should retire. An embarrassment to the American Judicial System of justice and integrity. Truly pitiful.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA18839
Rating:2.0

Comments:
Judge is woefully incompetent. Only saving grace is that she is very bland in court and doesn't indulge in crazy screaming fits.

Litigant

Comment #: CA18078
Rating:1.0

Comments:
How do I complain and remove Judge Sterne from my case?
I feel helpless with regard to my participation in courtroom procedure with Judge Stern.
Her actions are suspicious... since my petitions and request and COMPLAINTS have been blocked by Judge Sterne herself in in SB courtroom . The attorney Barnes she appointed under offensive pressure is also blocking me from progress and from proper intervention to assist me

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA18077
Rating:1.0

Comments:
I would like you to check this judge Sterne of Santa Barbara with regard to organized corruption suspicion.
- the way she appoints attorneys such as (Ms BArnes)
- the way money disappears from the account during her courtroom procedure $60,000 without explanation within weeks;
- suspicious "the background chats behind the back" of the person whos suppose to receive the entire inheritance;
- allowing *emotional and financial abuse toward the inheritor* who was awarded and supposed to rightfully receive the funds in a reasonable time
- prolonging timing for unreasonable periods of time suspicious delays and complications,
- other

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA15320
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Among the worst judges I have ever appeared before. Having had to take over several matters previously handled by other lawyers in our firm, the enjoyment of the drive to Santa Barbara has been ruined not only because of this judge's extraordinary ineptness, refusal to prepare in advance of hearings, consistent lack of knowledge of the law and complete disregard of the evidence code, being forced to sit through and listen to her attempt to handle the many other cases on calendar, it is very hard to sit still without standing up and yelling "are you kidding?" it's appalling and wrong for a person with such a limited intellect and such disregard for those who has the misfortune of appearing before her, to be subject to rulings that have such incredibly devastating impact. This is a person who should never have made it past the interview process. She is an abomination.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA15308
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Likely the laziest, most incompetent, embarrassingly ill-equipped, disaster of a jurist within the state. When challenged she becomes vindictive, retaliatory and exceedingly full of herself. She insists on referring to herself in the third person, as if she were the Queen of some mythical land of unicorns and wizards, over which she lords her omnipotent birth right. Avoid at all costs.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: CA13900
Rating:9.5

Comments:
This is one of the best judges I have ever dealt with in over 35 years as an attorney. Extremely thorough. She writes 14-15 page tentatives so even if you lose you know why. I lost the case on MSJ but she was so well-reasoned that it is hard to find fault. She follows the law which is all you can ask for in a good judge!

Other

Comment #: CA10510
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Colleen Sterne's court transcripts are not thorough nor accurate, sometimes there are none. She seems prejudiced and biased right away for the plaintiff whose petitions are totally fallacious with no basis. She doesn't even read the answers to the petitions or the MD reports assuring the healthy 90 yo defendant needs no medications. Didn't even let the defendant's lawyers speak or present MD witness. Judge's bailiff falsely charged me in the Superior Court with filing a false police report after I was physically attacked by the petitioner in the courtroom (who I had never seen before) as I was caregiving his 90 yo mom he was suing! The Judge lied saying she was sending the healthy 90 yo woman to visit her grandkids but actually let the petitioner institutionalize his mom against her will without any cause or fair hearing by forcing her to a doctor who drugged her! What a travesty of justice and the Judge was rude and totally disrespectful to the 90 yo.stripping her of all her rights even though the 90 yo told her she didn't need any medication and wanted to live in her home with her son and me the caregiver, which was not even in the transcripts!

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: CA10019
Rating:1.0

Comments:
very unimpressive, okay as a settlement judge.