Court Opinion

ID: 9728927
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:19:09.472003+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:53.074220
License: Public Domain

GATES, J.
I fully concur in my colleagues’ disposition with regard to the instant proceeding and, in the main, with their observations concerning the inappropriate manner in which Code of Civil Procedure section 170.6 is so frequently utilized. I further agree it would be well for our Legislature to consider corrective amendments designed to curtail these abuses.
I write here only to note that, despite its shortcomings, in my experience this section has served a salutary purpose in eliminating the necessity for a counsel or his client to detail the bases for their views regarding a given jurist and their resultant belief, accurate or inaccurate, that he is prejudiced against them personally or against their cause generally.
Strive as we will, I wonder if even the noblest mortal remains wholly unaffected by ad hominem assaults upon his or her character. On occasion, principles have been known to become so hopelessly intertwined with *863personalities that an on-the-record public airing of private grievances could only produce wounds sufficiently grievous as to cause permanent scarring. Perhaps this possibility is greatest in the smaller counties, or in the branch courts of the more populous areas, but I doubt that human nature is fail-safe even in the Central District of the Los Angeles Superior Court.