THE ROBING ROOM

I've practiced in front of many federal judges, and Judge McDermott is, in my opinion, one of the worst, if not the worst I've experienced. His temperament is poor, first and foremost, and inconsistent. One hearing, he will be gruff and angry, and the next, he will be perfectly fine and cordial. More concerning, the rulings on discovery, in particular, are very inconsistent. There was one instance where the ruling was so misguided that it had to be appealed to the District Court Judge for purposes of preserving it for appeal to the Ninth Circuit (the case settled, so it became moot). I suspect that his Clerk has wide authority to decide many of these issues on her own, or with limited oversight, and that may also play a role. Also, his chambers are 'dark' very often. 'Dark' is code for 'unavailable.' There were at least two instances of 'dark' chambers for at least three weeks of time. Maybe there is a good reason, like a medical issue or something unknown to the public, but if there isn't 'good cause' for it, then he's just frankly not doing his job. No one is completely devoid of merit, of course, and I will say that there were instances where Judge McDermott had a good understanding of the issues during hearings, but, again, there were some inconsistencies. He was also punctual for hearings. In short, this is a Judge that is largely inconsistent, poorly tempered, incorrect in many rulings, and often unavailable. Not good.