Judge Linda Lopez is Not a People Person

Judge Linda Lopez was recently promoted from Magistrate Judge to Federal District Court Judge in the Southern District of California.

When I have more time, I will analyze her orders in depth.

Today, I will post a motion I filed this morning that you can download and a related motion I filed yesterday.

Briefly, attorney defendants represented by attorneys were granted an anti-SLAPP motion against me for causes of action that are not covered by the anti-SLAPP statute, legal malpractice and conversion. They were granted fees, of course.

I tried to make an interlocutory appeal as provided for in California CCP sec. 425.16(i) and 904.1. The Ninth Circuit would not consider the matter until all claims against all parties were dismissed.

I tried to have the order vacated, in part because the Judge who granted it, Janis L. Sammartino, was biased against me and refused to recuse herself before making the order. Judge Linda Lopez was the first magistrate judge on the case and appears to have the same venomous bias.

The Attorney Defendants then filed two separate motions for attorney fees incurred after the initial award.

Judge Lopez has a good rule. She requires parties who are filing substantially similar motions asking for the same relief to file a consolidated motion.

I made an ex parte motion asking to combine my response to both sets of movants. I mentioned that they violated the rule about consolidation.

Judge Lopez ordered the Clerk to strike my motion because I failed to follow another rule that says parties must meet and confer before filing an ex parte motion.

My friends and even my enemies know I am ill. It is not critical. Y’all are stuck with me for a few more years anyhow, barring a catastrophic injury.

It is difficult to always act with the grace I wish for.

So, I decided that since Judge Linda Lopez was going to hold me to the rules, I am going to zealously pursue my own interests and have the redundant motions stricken. I anticipate Judge Lopez will find for the Attorney Defendants, but not because they are right.

UPDATE: Judge Linda Lopez denied my motion to strike. No surprise. She said that since I said both responses are substantially the same, with just the names changed, that I must file the two separate responses. Since there is an aggregate page count for all motions due on the same day, she halved the allowable length of my response.