William F. Fahey

Based on my June 5, 2026, civil case management conference experience, Judge William F. Fahey was aggressive, dismissive, and unequal in his treatment of me as a self-represented Safe at Home and ADA-disabled plaintiff. He stated in substance that he did not know the Safe at Home program, required me to justify confidentiality protections, and stated that my identifying information would be released publicly. He also allowed the defendant to appear remotely with the camera off without prior notice or proof of service to me, while treating me harshly on filing/proof-of-service issues. I believe his courtroom conduct lacked patience, dignity, courtesy, and evenhandedness. He is a horrible judge who should retire and not represent the law that is to protect and not discriminate.

He is a former military guy. He can be a bit ornery. However, he makes decisions down the middle. I recommend him highly for MSCs and settlements.

Worst court, remember to file the courtesy paper and make sure they received your paper or you will get sanction.

Worst judge I have ever been before . Biased. Will find any way to get rid of a case, even if there is not a motion on the claim before him. Reversed on appeal and he says, “see I was right”, What? One case I was listening to waiting my turn and plaintiffs lawyer was not there for a status conference so he dismissed the entire case with prejudice. I’d give this guy zero stars if I could

Review his courtroom rules before your first appearance. If appearing by Zoom for an 8:30 a.m. appearance, check in by 8:00 a.m. or he may not recognize your appearance. Trial dates will not be continued, this is an absolute rule. All e-filings must be accompanied by paper courtesy copies (with tabs) hand-delivered to the department. He takes motions off calendar on the day of the hearing if there are no paper courtesy copies submitted.

Hard right leaning, pro employer/defense in civil cases.

Unfortunately the comments are correct. The weird thing is that in person when he's conducting a settlement conference in his chambers Judge Fahey is relatively affable. He does his own MSCs on bench trial cases, which is weird. He reminds me of the old days when Dept 80 and 82 heard all law and motion, and judge Sohigian (the ultimate nightmare) would sanction lawyers like there was no tomorrow, and judge Huff wasn't much better. Fahey tries to intimate counsel, rushes everything, lies about his court's ability to actually try your case on the scheduled date, and makes attorneys do the most work possible to accomplish anything in his department. It really is sad that he tarnishes a courthouse in which many of the judges are excellent. He'll never retire to private judging (his wife is a retired judge at Signature) because he'd get no business. So he'll probably sit on the bench till his last day on earth. 170.6 him.

He is a terrible judge and i wonder if he really studied law.

Lacks the dignity and decorum of his peers. He’s not a pleasant individual. I had clients who could not appear because of health issues. He would not accept the representation without x-rays, medical reports, doctors testimony, etc.

This judge should be removed or retire. He is a USC alumni and hears cases involving USC to protect his alameda and abandons his responsibility to uphold the law. With all USC judges investors can injure society all they want.

Judge Fahey never passes up an opportunity to make a lawyer's life difficult. He has no appreciation for the practice of law.

Judge William F. Fahey should be impeached because he is biased, prejudice, unfair, unreasonable, irresponsible, and makes decisions based solely on his enormous undeserved ego instead of based on laws, facts, and reason.

No judge in Los Angeles County has more affidavits of prejudice filed against him. Even though he, therefore, has a smaller workload than the other judges, he is also at the top of the list of most reversed judges.

The worst judge in Los Angeles County. He is a lousy judge for many reasons, not the least of which is fundamental dishonesty.

Pre-trial experience with this judge was all positive. Courteous, read the papers, ruling affirmed.

Extremely difficult judge to work with. I would ding immediately if I were to have another case with him.

I can’t imagine why he didn’t get elected to Congress.

In my experience, Judge Fahey has lied about me, personally, in multiple court orders. He has made false representations about the contents of his own file, and has used the same as the basis of adjudication. He does not let the law get in the way of his predetermined outcome. He is unfit for the bench.

Extremely rude and condescending to all counsel. After he forced a settlement, he then berated the parties for not including a 664.6 provision that would have allowed him to retain jurisdiction. No Your Honor, the reason we settled was so that you would no longer have jurisdiction over the case. I suspect everyone papers him because he seems to have a wide open docket.

Horrible Judge living in the 18th century. He requests filings to be delivered to his courtroom and then claims they are not delivered. Subsequently either does not consider the filings or moves the date of the hearing despite having evidence to the contrary related to the delivery of the filings. He has an inability to use his computer to look up filings and is inept with understanding issues as a judge.