Thomas P. Anderle

As a plaintiff’s attorney, appearing before Hon. Thomas P. Anderle in Santa Barbara Superior Court is an exercise in frustration. At 90+, his charisma and attentive demeanor—praising counsel’s “impressive work”—belie a deeper issue: rulings seem preordained, favoring state agencies despite their clear overreach. He’ll acknowledge jurisdictional missteps mid-argument, yet rule against the evidence. Tentative rulings, dense and unyielding, resist even airtight rebuttals, rendering oral arguments futile. Both sides know the outcome heads to appeal, making his courtroom a costly detour. Clerks appear to steer his decisions, undermining advocacy. Kind but intractable, Judge Anderle’s bench demands strategic forum-shopping or appellate prep.

Appeared in Judge Anderle's courtroom on a motion, his ruling was appropriate, and he has a pleasant demeanor.

This so-called judge is nothing more than an idiotic petty tyrant, who never admits he's wrong, even when it's clear as day, that he is completely wrong. He picks favorites, and then going off the rails with his biased bullshit. [Redacted by Ed.] Anderle makes our society a worst place to live. [Redacted by Ed.] Anderle is a prime example of why judges should not have immunity, because they abuse their power when they know they can't be held accountable to it. At 89, he should have never been on the bench to begin with, but now is about 24 years overdue to retire from it. [Redacted by Ed.] If your attorney isn't one of his chosen favorites that he'll service with both of his sphincters, 170.6 this stupid bigoted PoS idiot ASAP.

Judge Anderle is 89 and needs to retire. He either lacks mental flexibility or his biases are no longer in check as he has ages. He refuses to follow the law or to be impartial. I am an older woman that was unfortunately assigned to Judge Anderle. Though my ex husband out earns me exponentially (his business grosses $2 million a year) and has created costly chaos and delays Anderle has refused to award attorney’s fees to me. (I have been out-resourced since I was locked out of community accounts prior to divorce.) During the pandemic, when my earnings increased briefly, Anderle cut my support by 50% due to my “success.” Two years later when my income dropped by 2/3 after the market changed, Anderle refused to follow the same law and logic when the shoe was on the other foot. He refused to increase my support to the original amount and I am now unable to meet my financial obligations. (Forget about marital lifestyle! That didn’t figure into Anderle’s calculations.) Anderle has ignored my ex-husband’s blatant lies and perjury about his income and assets though we provided proof from bank records and loan applications. Anderle denied my request to have my ex cooperate in obtaining a life insurance policy that I would pay for to protect my support as an older woman in a brand new career(post-divorce) with market fluctuations. Judge Anderle even denied my request to have my support payment paid electronically each month. Who sends a check in 2024? He also refused to enforce a contempt order from 2019. This one 89-year-old man unilaterally changed my financial future for the balance of my life. How many other people will he be allowed to negatively impact? With his previous decisions consistently against me, should I be hopeful for a different outcome next hearing? (There will likely be another hearing because I divorced THAT man and Anderle has allowed the bullying and injustice to continue for years!) I anticipate that there will be more women speaking

Judge Anderle is 89 and needs to retire. He either lacks mental flexibility or his biases are no longer in check as he has ages. He refuses to follow the law or to be impartial. I am an older woman that was unfortunately assigned to Judge Anderle. Though my ex husband out earns me exponentially (his business grosses $2 million a year) and has created costly chaos and delays Anderle has refused to award attorney’s fees to me. (I have been out-resourced since I was locked out of community accounts prior to divorce.) During the pandemic, when my earnings increased briefly, Anderle cut my support by 50% due to my “success.” Two years later when my income dropped by 2/3 after the market changed, Anderle refused to follow the same law and logic when the shoe was on the other foot. He refused to increase my support to the original amount and I am now unable to meet my financial obligations. (Forget about marital lifestyle! That didn’t figure into Anderle’s calculations.) Anderle has ignored my ex-husband’s blatant lies and perjury about his income and assets though we provided proof from bank records and loan applications. Anderle denied my request to have my ex cooperate in obtaining a life insurance policy that I would pay for to protect my support as an older woman in a brand new career(post-divorce) with market fluctuations. Judge Anderle even denied my request to have my support payment paid electronically each month. Who sends a check in 2024? He also refused to enforce a contempt order from 2019. This one 89-year-old man unilaterally changed my financial future for the balance of my life. How many other people will he be allowed to negatively impact? With his previous decisions consistently against me, should I be hopeful for a different outcome next hearing? (There will likely be another hearing because I divorced THAT man and Anderle has allowed the bullying and injustice to continue for years!) I anticipate that there will be more women speaking

I’d rate him unfit to be a judge or lawyer— 0. He made me, the defendant and a women, pay 100% of my ex-husband’s legal fee because he could, not that the plaintiff couldn’t afford to pay his own fees. He ignored evidence and made his decision within the first meeting, not changing his mind even when fraud was clearly laid out as evidence and that my ex-husband forced his secretary, a notary, to forge my name to change title to property. He also had a pre-existing relationship with my ex-husband’s lawyer, Dennis Wasser, and enabled judicial decisions to go in his favor. He sent Wasser’s daughter a congratulatory note on getting an award. The trial of many weeks was a waste of time. He should have concluded it after ten minutes when he made his final judgement, but was so puffed up about having serious LA lawyers in his court, he sat and gloated for weeks, forcing me to pay the full cost of the trial. It was not ethically right to do what he did and perhaps illegal to ignore fraud.

Makes decision early in the case before hearing all of the evidence, so plaintiff has the advantage. Also, will not change his tentative ruling, even if he misread the pleadings. Absolutely refuses to admit that he can make a mistake.

Although he appears affable, he is actually a cold-hesrted tyrant. He makes up his mind on the paperwork and remains fixed on his tentative ruling, even if it was based on his mistaken reading of something in the pleadings. That's because he is absolutely unable to admit that he was wrong about something. Oral argument is a waste of time. He will never retire, and you will have to pry the gavel out of his cold, dead hands. At 86, it is well past time to step down.

Absolutely will not depart from his tentative ruling, other than minor "tweeks." Complete inability to admit he can make a mistake. Oral argument is a waste of time.

He's not mean. He is direct and efficient. I lost a demurrer the other day and don't agree. But OK, the case will come out fine in the end You think he's too old? No way. He's sharp and uses technology better than most 25 year olds.

This judge should have retired long ago. He is NOT impartial and is biased from the get-go giving the other party no chance of fairly and objectively having their case reviewed. You'd better pray he's not your judge!

This judge really needs to retire or resign. He is so unfair and mean-spirited, and so biased, he harms so many. His courtroom is ugly with harm.

Judge Anderle is long overdue to retire. He would be doing us all a favor by gracefully bowing out. He does provide a tentative, which is nice, but he often gets the facts wrong and seems outright biased. At the end of the day, he ends up costing the litigants more money with his poor rulings and inability to command the litigation. He is definitely a 170.6.

Judge Anderle used to be an excellent jurist, but has become so addled as to be inaccurate, inconsistent and incapable of any real analysis. He rules like a dictator, without regard for the law or the facts. His rulings stray so far from the rule of law it is difficult to believe his court attorneys have actually passed the bar exam. Even when he rules in my client's favor, I know the ruling is subject to appeal, and now after more than two years we are headed to trial in a case which will surely be appealed by whichever side loses. It is truly a travesty.

I had a complex case before him. We consistently were getting hometowned by defense counsel. His rulings demonstrably conflicted with the CCP and the CRC. He sends out lengthy CMOs and CMCs just walk through those. Finally, I pointed out all the different ways his order didn't comply with the CCP in very obvious ways. He ended up getting flustered and stating, on the record, the CCP does not apply to him. He may have been a good judge at one point, but he clearly has diminished capacity and should retire. His courtroom is where justice goes to die.