Karen Hansen

I recently was in court with Judge Hansen, and I found her to be knowledgeable and fair. She was efficient in managing cases quickly (there were a lot of people waiting in court). I have read the reviews provided here, and they were not close to my experience. People are going through tough times in Family Court. If someone has a good experience, you hear nothing. If it doesn't go well, you find comments here.

Abusive. I have been.in front of her perhaps 30 times now., Not once has she been on time. NOT ONCE. You order people to be present and on time and then you cannot be bothered to be on time. So self centered. Admit you will always be late and allow people to check in at 9. She cannot even come back from her morning recess on time. Sad and shocking.

No idea how to run a courtroom. I was waiting for my case, along with perhaps 20 others. Judge was giving a speech about how she would call continuances first or short matters. A woman stood up and said "can I ask a question?" The proper answer, of course, is "no, not at this time." Judge hesitated, said I guess so, woman asked how man she had restraining order against was allowed to be in same room with her, told judge she had a permanent RO. Judge looked up her case, argued with her about what kind of order she had, learned the man was not in fact even in the room, continued to argue with woman. All of this caused everybody else to wait. Completely inappropriate. Judge needs to learn how to run a courtroom. Basic stuff.

Terrible, just terrible.

OMG. Absolutely no idea how to run a calendar. Start a "trial" in 2025 and maybe won't even finish in 2026? The occasional afternoon, months from now? How is it possible that this happens? It is new judges with no idea how to do it. Inept at best.

Second rate lawyer, now a fourth rate judge.

I've been practicing here for more than 30 years and I thought the family law judges could never be worse than Gallagher or Baskett. This one is worse. Sad how bad she is. Rather limited in willingness to make decisions. When she does not know what to do, she just ignores the issue or point. Recently, she has taken to hearing a matter (trial for two afternoons) and then just denying the RFO, saying person had not met their burden. There was two afternoons worth of evidence - she simply could not be bothered to deal with it. Maybe she doesn't understand the basics of bank account statements, but that is pretty basic. When lawyers don't follow the rules, she does nothing about it. That just allows bad lawyers to continue to be bad.

Really bad. Judges are just lawyers. If they came form private practice, it means they were crappy lawyers. Any good private practice attorney makes way, way, way more money than a judge. Sad, but true. That's why judges are so crappy, if they were civil practitioners.

What is with this new set of family law judges? No ability of any kind to handle schedule or lawyers. "Trial" is one afternoon, every few months? Accepts without question when an attorney says a date doesn't work, so a case lasts months and even years longer than necessary. Afraid to take charge, probably because she does not know how.

Crappy. totally crappy.

I was waiting for my case and watched her treat pro pers unfairly. The father had a court order for sole custody of his children from a different judge. Apparently they were there for financial stuff, but naturally, father wanted to focus on kids. Judge started the hearing by saying that issue was not in front of her, then said, yes, you were supposed to turn over the children, where are they? turns out mother doesn't want to turn over the kids and won't tell father where they are. Says she is afraid of him and kids don't want to see him. None of that matters - another judge issued an order. This judge has no right to change it, especially when it was not in front of her for that reason. By the end of the hearing, she gave father SUPERVISED VISITATION!! When he had an order for SOLE custody! My gosh, who does she thing she is? An attorney would have known enough to tell her she cannot change another judge's orders, especially without taking any evidence or having a noticed hearing. She should have known that! Shocking!

So inept, it is sad. Except for the fact that her rulings affect lives.

Pathetic. Clearly does not even know the basics about the rules of evidence.

Is there any way to send her back to Monterey, where she is from? Why do the citizens of Santa cruz have to have a crappy judge from another county? She does not know the law and shortchanges support amounts, just because she can. I thought judges were supposed to follow the law.

Egad, she's bad.

I went with my daughter to court for support. This judge is just mean. She cut her spousal support to one third of the computer calculus without any reason. The attorney said if the judge goes below guidelines she is required to explain why, but she didn't. I think this judge is intimidated by lawyers who are smarter than she is or doesn't like people who are better looking. She is just mean. She has power to affect people's lives and when she gets miffed, she blames the people in court and then punishes them.

Sadly, she is bad. Has absolutely no idea how to control witnesses or run a courtroom. She is polite, but that does not mean she is any good. People talk all over her and waste everyone's time. Clearly she has never tried a case as a lawyer. If she had, she would be better.

This judge is way over her head. She is obviously intimidated by good lawyers who know the law. She starts a hearing with "Counsel, you have 5 minutes." Since when is offering a mere five minute to a party enough time to have a real opportunity to be heard. This is after she has wasted 45 minutes with pro pers who have no idea what they are doing and she has no idea how to handle them. Sad.

This judge has NO idea how to control a courtroom. She lets litigants talk over each other, over her and on and on and on about things that are not before her. I have heard her say, "well, we are not talking about the SUV" and then both sides go on and on about the SUV - for 20 minutes!!!. She does not know how to stop inappropriate remarks, which makes the other side want to respond to inappropriate remarks and on and on it goes.

Beware judges who come from other counties. She is from Monterey but applied to be a judge inSanta Cruz. Why not apply in the county in which you worked? Because those lawyers will rate you as unqualified and you will not be appointed. Apply in a different county and you get in. That is what this woman did. So unqualified. So sad for santa cruz.