Magistrate
6 reviews
[Redacted by Ed.] She feigns courtesy, but drags out matters to no conclusion. She is pro government and business and anti civil rights. A real hypocrite. Abuses counsel. As arrogant as can be. Be careful of her; she seems okay on the surface, but is [Redacted by Ed.] .
Doesn’t know the law, doesn’t care to know the law. Shoots from the hip in rendering a decision instead of engaging in the proper research. Or allowing herself time to know it. Biased against plaintiffs as she’s spent her entire career doing defense work. It would be nice to have some judges who can be fair to plaintiffs. Yet the constant pedigree of defense background judges continues to pop up over and over and over again. The appointments should balance out.
I'm a pro se litigant. Had her for discovery matters. She is extremely biased against pro se litigants, makes arbitrary and capricious rulings. She has trouble controlling the litigants and often has to raise her voice. If you're a pro se, avoid her if possible.
I had a civil case in which opposing counsel and I stipulated to have Judge Stevenson act as the judge through the entire trial. A week before trial, I was a little nervous, wondering if maybe I shouldn’t have picked a magistrate to handle the entire case. My concerns were assuaged before trial. We had a 2 ½ hour pretrial conference, discussing every conceivable pretrial issue. Judge Stevenson came through in the clutch. She was everything that you want a judge to be. She is smart, knows her facts, knows her law, was very fair, and was not afraid to rule against someone if the law was against them. Also, she wasn’t afraid to rule against someone who was pushing a legal argument that didn’t quite fit. She stuck to her guns, and wasn’t afraid to say “no” when a “no” was required. Best of all, she had no judicial arrogance. She simply rolled up her sleeves and went to work with both attorneys, trying to get all issues resolve before trial. Very, very refreshing. Our case ended up settling on the eve trial, but I would have been 1000% comfortable using her as the trial judge.
Had her for a status conference. She was super friendly, cordial, and nice. I realize it's not a real substantive hearing, but it was nice to have a judge that was friendly.
On a friendly scale, she's very friendly. Very accommodating and helpful. No judicial arrogance. She ruled against me on a motion, but I guess a motion can go either way. By and large, I like her.