Judge John W. Ouderkirk

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Judge John W. Ouderkirk

Ouderkirk, John William Active #77667
Address: 41 Camino Real, Rancho Mirage, CA 92270-4138
County: Riverside County
Phone Number: (310) 201-0010
Email: ranchomirage1@earthlink.net
Law School: Loyola Law School; Los Angeles CA

3/7/2006 Active
4/5/2004 Inactive
2/23/1989 Judge
12/21/1977 Admitted to The State Bar of California

Member: Family Law Section, Beverly Hills Bar Assoc.; Los Angeles County Bar Assoc.; Riverside County Bar Assoc.; Desert Bar Assoc
Attendee: CJER/Pepperdine – Straus Mediation Institute; CFLR Family Law update
Frequent speaker: and panelist on family law issues for bar associations and other organizations

PRACTICE AREAS
Business/Contracts, Discovery Referee, Employment, Family Law, Insurance Coverage Personal Injury, Legal and Medical Malpractice, Real Estate

2003 Panelist Los Angeles County Bar Family Law Section 25th Annual Child Custody Colloquium
2003 Panelist Beverly Hills Bar Association Family Law Section “The New Age of Discovery”
2002 Panelist Center for Judicial Education and Research Family Law Institute
2001 Panelist Beverly Hills Bar Association 27th Annual Family Law Symposium Complex Spousal Support Issues
2001 Speaker Beverly Hills Bar Ass Alternative Dispute Resolution Section”International Child Abduction”
2001 Attendee CJER/Pepperdine Straus Institute
2001 Member Superior Court Commissioner Selection Committee
2000-2002 Elected Member Los Angeles Superior Court Executive Committee
2000 Attendee CJER Family Law Institute
1998 Speaker California Judges Association/Rutter Group – “Expert Witnesses”
1998 Attendee CJER Advanced Civil Law Institute
1997 Attendee CJER Basic Civil Law Institute
1994,1997 Attendee National Judicial College Seminar on Land Use, CEQA
1994-present Member Board of Directors Devil Pups, Inc. (Youth Organization)
1992, 1996 Chairperson, Los Angeles Superior Court Probation Committee
1991 Attendee California Judges College Superior
1989 Attendee California Judges College Municipal
1986-1987 Elected Member, Board of Directors Association of Deputy District
Attorneys Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County Superior Court, Retired
Judge John Ouderkirk has served as a neutral in a wide range of cases. He has mediated and arbitrated numerous matters, including lengthy, complex civil matters. He has presided over multiple family law trials as judge protem by stipulation of the parties. He is well-respected among the civil and family law bars, where he is considered to be an excellent settlement judge and a thorough and efficient discovery referee. Judge John Ouderkirk has a reputation for his adept handling of highly sensitive, emotional cases.

Judge John Ouderkirk sat on the Los Angeles Superior Court bench from 1991-2004, where he resolved all aspects of Family Law cases for the last four years of his tenure. From 1997-2000, he handled unlimited jurisdiction cases in the Central Civil Division.

Since 2004, Judge John Ouderkirk has served as a discovery referee for the U.S. District Court in a complex, multi-party trademark case and has presided over depositions in the U.S. and Italy.

Judge John Ouderkirk was known in the criminal courts for presiding over the “Reginald Denny beating case.” Prior to his appointment to the court, Judge John Ouderkirk was a Deputy District Attorney for the County of Los Angeles, where he prosecuted insurance fraud, art forgery, and music piracy. He served as an investigator for the District Attorney’s office from 1970-78 and was a Santa Monica police officer from 1965-70.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk, a former police officer who received worldwide attention in 1993 when he presided over the controversial Reginald Denny beating trial, confirmed Friday that he plans to retire from the bench April 5.

Ouderkirk actually announced his retirement plans in open court last Tuesday. The unusual courtroom announcement was made for wholly practical reasons, the judge explained.

During a rescheduling of a hearing in the family law court he has occupied the past four years, a proposed date conflicted with the judge’s retirement plans, so he let those plans be known. At 61, and after 14 years on the bench, Ouderkirk is retiring at an earlier-than-usual age for judges. He said his motivation is simple: “I really want to retire and have my life to myself.”

He said he hasn’t decided on plans for post-retirement employment. In fact, he said, he’s looking forward to retirement in the true sense of the word. “I would really like to finally learn to speak Spanish,” Ouderkirk—who for years has spent much of his free time camping, fishing and kayaking in Mexico

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who is locked in a divorce proceeding with actor Brad Pitt, wants the private judge involved in the dispute to be booted off of the case.

Jolie’s lawyers referred to Judge John W. Ouderkirk (Ret.) as having a “repeat-customer relationship” with Pitt’s lawyer Anne C. Kiley. The Los Angeles Superior Court filing claimed that Ouderkirk “failed to disclose the cases that demonstrated the current, ongoing, repeat-customer relationship between the judge and Respondent’s counsel.”

Private judging, The American Bar Association says, is “a process where the disputing parties agree to retain a neutral person as a private judge. The private judge, who is often a former judge with expertise in the area of the dispute, hears the case and makes a decision in a manner similar to a judge. Depending on court rules, the decision of the private judge may be appealable in the public courts.”

A number of celebrities take this path in divorce cases in order to keep many of the “filings and the personal and financial details” sealed, the Associated Press noted.

Jolie, arguing that John Ouderkirk’s neutrality was in question, moved for his disqualification, saying that the mere appearance of a conflict was enough.

“It doesn’t matter if Judge John Ouderkirk is actually biased,” the filing said. “Under California law disqualification is required so long as a person aware of the facts ‘might reasonably entertain a doubt’ about Judge John Ouderkirk’s ability to remain impartial.”

JUDGES OFTEN HAVE QUESTIONABLE RETIREMENTS FROM LOS ANGELES COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT
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Judge Reva G Goetz (Exposed for Brittney Spears Conservatorship)

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Judge No Stranger to High-Profile Cases
Jolie seeks removal of private judge in Pitt divorce case
Divorce judge contested by Angelina Jolie also married her and Brad Pitt

VIDEOS
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Judge says Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are now single

Angelina Jolie Wants Judge Overseeing Private Brad Pitt Divorce Case Removed

Angelina Jolie asks for private judge to be removed in Brad Pitt divorce

Angelina Jolie’s demand to ditch divorce judge is a ‘stall tactic’ in settlement because Brad ‘wins’

Brad Pitt slams ex Angelina Jolie for ‘delay tactic’ amid bitter custody battle

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