Custody Players

A disgrace to his profession.
For a lot of people with limited income, Small Claims Court is the only option for seeking justice. He apparently sees it as a buck to be passed.
My neighbor and I appeared before him because our new owner/landlord, who is upgrading the building, started renting the old, wooden garages beneath our apartments to a succession of homeless people who were camping overnight. One of them was arrested for meth possession and violent priors and rather than evicting her, our landlord championed her right to live in the garage and make our lives hell. Our landlord put up surveillance cameras that pointed into our front doors (the City Attorney thought this was worth investigating, though His Honor couldn’t be bothered to hear about it.) The landlord began removing features of our apartments, citing estoppels that he had clearly falsified. And just two days after I filed my small claims complaint, he served me with a notice of eviction.
My one hope was that my small claims case would be heard before his eviction trial. Then I got this sad excuse for a judge.
He started by pointing out that I was suing a limited liability corporation. I asserted that limited liability doesn’t mean you can break the law. He then asked me if I was citing a particular legal chapter or verse. He actually described it by a multi-digit number—like I was supposed to know what he was talking about. Then we all stood there in silence for three minutes while he flipped through a book. My impression was that this was a little game, a test of our ability to remain ‘respectfully’ silent; he never found what he was looking for.
Then he shared his impression of the case, though I wasn’t sure who he was talking to; I was more struck by the fact that he was doing so without having heard a word of testimony.
He said something like “Here we have a new owner who’s doing some things that the old tenants aren’t happy about…”
He looked at the first page or two of a notebook full of evidence and then announced that all this… (waving his hand over the notebook like it was a salad he was done with) …all this would be better handled in eviction court.
So thanks to this guy, I was facing eviction for complaining about the homeless meth-head camping under my apartment. Way to hand out justice.
Fortunately, I got help from the Legal Aid people. They saved the day by determining that my landlord’s lawyers hadn’t filed the eviction paperwork properly and would have to start from scratch.
They also said that, had we gone to trial, only matters pertaining to my landlord’s complaint against me (specifically that I had two dogs instead of one) would have been heard. So when Judge St. George delayed my case, saying it would all be better handled in eviction court, he was either very wrong or full of it.
It saddens me to think of the hundreds of people who come to Small Claims Court every week, seeking justice and end up in front of this guy. He clearly doesn’t want to do his job, but why should so many suffer for it? He should stop punishing people who come to him for help. He should do an honorable thing and retire.

by David Stamford for MATTHEW ST. GEORGE - commissioner/judge of Write Review About Family Court Judges
on 05-18-2019 at 15-43-48

This judge is not an idiot. He is just a lazy person who looks to any possible way of not actually hearing a case. He is now demoted to small claims court because of the awful work he did in family court. He runs his court with forcing mediation (not a bad thing as 50%-75% of the cases get settled. But anyone who doesnt get their cases sattled with the mediator and forces him to hear them, he will reprimand them and then find a reason to dismiss the case, even if there is no logic behind the reason.
I saw a dentist who was suing his client who he did work on patient. The patient said that she never signed an agreement to pay and the judge dismissed the case. What a joke.. Does he not know quantum meuit....of course he does. He just didnt want to hear the case.
I would always do a premptory challenge on him. I think it is time he is forced to retire. He takes enough breaks during the day and tries every which way not to hear cases in the afternoon

by jonathan Nissanoff for MATTHEW ST. GEORGE - commissioner/judge of Write Review About Family Court Judges
on 04-24-2018 at 12-33-10

Commissioner St. George was removed from his post and replaced by Judge Hank M. Goldberg, who is, by all all accounts, an excellent and fair judge.

by Frank Cephas for MATTHEW ST. GEORGE - commissioner/judge of Write Review About Family Court Judges
on 11-27-2017 at 21-34-49

St. George is well known for being cautious and biased against fathers. Most of the local lawyers and staff know this, some exploit it. He also dislikes self-represented individuals (the self-help department in Santa Monica is significantly lacking and he's overbooked).

To quote one lawyer, "He'll never take a kid away unless it's deserved but fathers are satellite's to him; they are insignificant. So unless a psych eval shows the mother is crazy, she will always get primary custody and the lion's share of time."

by Frank Cephas for MATTHEW ST. GEORGE - commissioner/judge of Write Review About Family Court Judges
on 04-27-2017 at 16-10-22

I beg to differ with all of the comments on this page. This man is honorable. My case went through court for about 10 years. It was ridiculous. He got the case assigned to him. He carefully read every pleading. He gave my ex a chance, just long enough to see him act as usual, and ended all the misery. He ended it. Of course my ex split and didn't follow orders, but, when I find him, and get him in for contempt, this judge knows what he's doing, and doesn't take any crap! Honorable Cowen is also a great judge! I can't believe someone commented on St Georges sexual preference. So what? Does that make anyone less of a judge? He's very fair, and VERY smart!! He genuinely cares about women and children. I hope they make this man a judge! He's awesome!!

by Laurie Laurie for MATTHEW ST. GEORGE - commissioner/judge of Write Review About Family Court Judges
on 07-07-2016 at 13-59-21

This is the worst judge I have ever seen. I have been in court as moral support for my brother and it has been awful. He hands out restraining orders like candy....... with ZERO regard to the truth, evidence nor consequences for those that he hands them out against. I have watched it day after day.

He then makes rulings and leans on the falsely derived restraining orders when ruling on custody.

I have totally lost faith in our judicial system because of this man.

I strongly advise anyone who has a case land on this "commissioner's" desk, to do yourself a favor and go to his courtroom and watch how he does things so that you are prepared.

I am not an advocate for lying under oath...... but if the other side does and you don't, you are screwed. He takes the word of the first liar then cares nothing about evidence to back up the story. Then when you are trying to rebut the lies, expects you to provide evidence to the contrary. How do you prove that you did not do something? It is supposed to be that the accuser has the burdon of proof for that reason.

My ex sister in law has lied under oath, lied in declarations and contradicted herself on several occassions, with no penalties for doing so. He gives no consideration to child psychologist's findings on over night visits or parental planning yet orders the parents to go to classes. He recently said he "went to a seminar" so now he does not want to give overnights visits to fathers. I am pretty sure that child psychologist's have far more than a seminar in their backgrounds that make them much better suited to make determinations with regards to children and overnights!

Luckily, he has made reversible errors so we at least have appeals..... money permitting!

I am considering a campaign against this man to have him removed or at least have his superiors look at his cases a little closer. If anyone out there reads this and has had similar experiences, I would love to hear from you. If there are enough of us, maybe we could make a difference. I can be reached by e-mail at MBoyett220@aol.com

by Michael Boyett for MATTHEW ST. GEORGE - commissioner/judge of Write Review About Family Court Judges
on 05-05-2015 at 23-40-06

What an ignoramus this commissioner is.
He completely ignored what the court appointed psychiatrist and a private therapist recommended on several occasions during our 730 evaluation. Too bad for me that I did not do my research on this guy. He is an ex-cop. Very conservative and very unpredictable. He took over from another disaster, David Cowan. When deciding the case he did not remember that I had a legal custody to my children. His background is LA City Attorney’s Office, criminal cases and LGBT issues. He is not qualified to handle family law cases. Hates it when people represent themselves and punishes you for that. He gave physical custody to the mother of my kids, assigned a visitations monitor to me even though there was no violence proven and ordered therapy for every one like he was choosing a meal at a restaurant.
He is totally anti-father. Avoid him.

by Todd Tyler for MATTHEW ST. GEORGE - commissioner/judge of Write Review About Family Court Judges
on 03-10-2015 at 15-15-00