Young v Albertsons, Los Angeles County Superior Court Case Number BC715879.


From the court's tentative ruling and online county case records it is Lawzilla's understanding the following occurred:

The McElfish Law Firm represents the plaintiff in a premises liability case against Albertsons.

The attorney referenced in the complaint is Raymond McElfish.




Defendant Albertsons served discovery for McElfish's client to answer. This included written questions to answer, a request to produce documents, and a request to admit certain facts as true.

Defendant filed motions to compel responses to the discovery.

The judge in the tentative ruling noted a verified response to the request to produce documents had been made.

After the motion to compel was filed as to the requests for admissions a verified response was made.

However, no verified response to the written questions (interrogatories) had been made. The judge ordered that verified responses be made within 10 days.

The court also ruled the sanctions were "warranted for failure to timely respond to authorized methods of discovery, which is discovery abuse."

The court then imposed $1180 in sanctions against the McElfish Law Firm, and other law firm, and the plaintiff.




After oral argument the tentative ruling was then adopted as the final order of the court.






Carrillo v Plaza Mexico Foundation, Los Angeles County Superior Court Case Number BC632831.


From the court's tentative ruling and online county case records it is Lawzilla's understanding the following occurred:

The McElfish Law Firm represents the plaintiff in an assault and battery case.

The primary attorney referenced in the complaint is Raymond McElfish.




The defendant noticed the deposition of McElfish's client. The deposition was scheduled three times and the McElfish firm did not object to the deposition.

The day before the deposition was to take place the McElfish law firm told the other attorney that plaintiff's counsel had started a trial the day before and the other attorney in the firm was busy.

Counsel did not appear for the deposition.

Defendant moved to compel the deposition and sought sanctions.

In a tentative ruling the judge said the McElfish firm should have provided more than one day of notice of the conflict.

The judge also said it should not have taken months to get the deposition done, and it was not shown that the deposition would occur absent the motion to compel.

After granting the motion to compel the judge then said $1345 in sanctions would be imposed against plaintiff's counsel and plaintiff.

The judge also noted McElfish did not oppose the motion to compel and request for sanctions.




When it came time for the court hearing for the motion the McElfish law firm did not appear in court.

The judge then said the tentative order would become the court's final order.

In our opinion $2525 is a lot of sanctions. But it apparently could have been worse.

In the first case the judge said the written questions and not been properly answered and ordered a prompt answer.

Although a response to the request for admissions was made, it was apparently not done until after defendant's counsel had spend the time and money to file a motion to compel. Although, interestingly, the judge denied sanctions for this motion.

The court's order was not clear about when the document request had been responded to.

There is not a lot of information in the court order, but apparently the judge determined there was attorney fault worthy of sanctioning two law firms.

In the second case more sanctions were sought than were awarded.

But since the McElfish attorneys did not oppose the motion it looks to us like they were fine with being sanctioned even more than what the judge ordered.

In our opinion that is not a good look for an attorney.

Would you hire Raymond McElfish or another attorney at the McElfish Law Firm to be your attorney?

Sanctions are Recoverable as a Judgment - Analysis of the little known fact that sanctions awarded in a lawsuit can be enforced as their own separate judgment. Surprise someone by putting a lien on their bank account, home, wages, etc.