Derek W. Hunt

Some judges are widely respected, and lawyers selfishly hope they will never be elevated, so they stay at the trial level. Others leave you wondering how on earth, he or she is allowed to remain on the bench. This judge, I am sorry to say, is in the latter category, no matter how well prepared you are. In my opinion, unprepared, does not care, lacks a judicial temprament. There are many excellent judges in OC, but not this one.

I understand that he may be impatient and does not coddle the unprepared. However, I think he does try to be fair and is certainly smart. I endorse the comment that he not one for the unprepared. If you are prepared and act with decorum, you will do as fine with him ad any other judge. I only downgrade him because he can be impatient at times.

This won't come as a surprise to any of the posters here... Hunt just had his arse handed to him this morning by the Commission on Judicial Performance, for exhibiting judicial bias in four separate cases. He was on the appellate division panel for the July calendar. All of the July hearings had to be continued to September. I'm not sure if I should be upset at the delay or thrilled that he won't be on the panel.

Sorry to say all the negative comments about Judge Hunt are almost certainly well earned by him. We recently tried a short trial to him and his ruling, and reswponse to a motion for new trial, cause genuine concern that he may not be mentally competent to discharge his judicial responsibilities. Sad, and dangerous for litigants in his court.

Judge Hunt is THE worst, bar none. All of the other negative reviews say it all. The other judges hate him too, by the way, so if I somehow forgot to timely file a ding, I would bring a motion to DQ him under CCP 170.1(6)(b).