Chatsworth Court Commissioner Admonished by Judicial Agency

A Superior Court Commissioner assigned to the Chatsworth Courthouse has been admonished for actions and comments in five family law cases.

Commissioner Alan H. Friedenthal, now deals with non-family law cases. The Commission on Judicial Performance ruled that Friedenthal engaged in misconduct that “included making discourteous, undignified, gratuitous and denigrating remarks to litigants, attorneys and related parties, and attempting to engage in humor at the expense of litigants; engaging in conduct that reflected embroilment and conveyed the appearance of bias; engaging in improper exparte communications; and failing to disclose on the record information that was reasonably relevant to the question of disqualification,” according to the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, a legal newspaper.

You can read the details here and here.