Socrates Peter Manoukian

Totally pro defense, pro large law firm and pro business defendant. Pete not only disregards the law and arguments presented by the counsel he does not like and/or the party he does not like, he actually argues points presented by the counsel and the parties that he wants to favor and benefit. That’s exactly what a judge should not do. Pete Manoukian has mastered that to a T.

Pete Manoukian is the worst judge in the Santa Clara County Superior Court in the last 40 years. Every comment I read below is 100% on point. He has no interest in following the law or reading any papers or listening to anybody. He loves to hear himself talk and thinks that people care about his self-serving and narcissistic war stories. He decides cases based on who he likes and what he wants to do. He does not know the law. He does not apply the governing law. He wings everything. He is extremely lazy. But worst of all, he is the most biased and unfair judge I appeared before in the Santa Clara County Superior Court since 1985. I can’t imagine how he manages to get away with all of this without judicial censure. Peter Stone is surely turning in his grave

`Judge Manoukian is unfair and bias and has no regard for self-represented litigants. Two motion in limine's were filed prior to trial that would have disposed of the case prior to trial but Judge Manoukian did not rule on either motion. As the trial began Judge Manoukian disclosed a conflict of interest in that his wife serves on the 6th Appellate court of appeals. After hearing the conflict of interest I requested for Judge Manoukian to recuse himself which he ignored stating "that's why I don't like self-represented litigants". There was an actual conflict of interest since the previous case between the same litigants was appealed and his wife presided over the appeal. As the trial progressed Judge Manoukian incorrectly denied myself to present any evidence of the previous case citing law of the case. Law of the case only applies to the current case and not the underlying action so I should have been permitted to present evidence. Judge Manoukian did everything he could do to sabotage my case including ignoring testimony and not providing a court reporter. I had previously been granted a fee waiver and the California Supreme Court has ruled that litigants who have been granted fee waivers are guaranteed to have a court reporter at trial. [Redacted by Ed.]

Socrates is an OUTSTANDING jurist and judicial officer. He is EPITOME of a judge with integrity. He's a damn FINE judge. And, he neither takes crap, not wastes time, on unrepresented litigants.

Judge Manoukian is a horrible judge and disregards relevant caselaw frequently. The precedent setting case in my complaint was decided in 2004 and the caselaw has remained undisturbed but Judge Manoukian ignored and indicated that it was not relevant. [Redcted] but he is horrible and his temperament is not good and [redacted] in his courtroom administration.

Judge Manoukian used to be a better jurist. It appears that he has taken a down turn in his abilities to remain impartial and apply the law fairly. As most judges, he favors the big corporations over the citizen now. He used to be about 50-50, now he appears to be about 80% in favor of big business with must less regard for individual claimants or their counsel. He sometimes will put on a show of being amicable with counsel; however, he does not evaluate what is in briefs, or at least his legal staff does not, and he does not appear to even brief himself on a case now. He simply shots from the hip so to speak. Only if he finds a strong personal interest in a case will he understand its details, otherwise, he is out of the loop. A portion of this is due to his being burned out as a jurist of so many years, and another part is that the case load is too large for him. There is limited staff. I wish he could return to the days as being erudite and even handed, but wishing is all we can do now. He should retire to not give the Bench in Santa Clara bad name.

Extremely lazy, incompetent and biased judge. Presides over the cases in which he has a conflict of interests. Does not read the briefs. Very short tempered, frequent psychopathic outbursts, violent yelling in the courtroom. Reserve your 170.6 motion for him.