Mike Monterroso v. Shirley Smith - Paul Kingston is plaintiff's attorney according to the complaint filed for this matter and the Los Angeles County case summary for this lawsuit.

From the tentative ruling this is what happened:

Attorney Paul Kingston represented the plaintiff in this case.

The defendants served discovery requests for Mr. Kingston's client to answer. These consisted of written questions and a request to produce documents. The requests were made in December 2017.

Responses are generally due in thirty days.

In February defense counsel sent a letter inquiring about where the responses were.

In March defendants finally filed a motion to compel.

Paul Kingston, Esq., did not bother to oppose the motion.

The judge then evaluated the situation and sanctioned attorney Paul Kingston, personally, for $579.

The judge said there was an abuse of the discovery process.

To recap: attorney Kingston did not respond to discovery, apparently did not respond to a letter about the discovery (or at least the letter did not resolve the problem), and did not respond to the motion to compel.

Wowsa.

Seems like awesome legal representation.



MELDRUM, NANNETTE VS CERTIFIED TIRE & SERVICE CENTERS - Paul Kingston is plaintiff's attorney according to the Los Angeles County case summary for this lawsuit.

From the tentative ruling this is what happened:

Attorney Paul Kingston represented the plaintiff in this case.

The defendants served discovery on Mr. Kingston's client to answer. This was written questions to answer and a request to produce documents. Kingston had about thirty days to object to any improper questions and to provide signed responses from his client.

After no responses were received defendant's attorney sent a letter requesting responses. Nothing from Kingston.

So defendant's attorney sent a second letter, but still nothing from Kingston.

A motion to compel was filed and that still did not generate discovery responses.

So the judge ordered responses to be quickly made within ten days.

Then the judge personally sanctioned attorney Paul Kingston for $460. His client was similarly sanctioned.

Note: It is unclear from the tentative ruling if the sanctions were $460 or $860. Both numbers were used and the ruling may not count all the filing fees for three motions to compel. For now we are assuming the lesser amount of $460, but the sanctions in a final order could be more.

Would you hire Paul Kingston to be your attorney?

Attorney Kingston is well into his 70s. After reading the judges' tentative rulings maybe he should not be practicing law any more.

Unfortunately, unlike the DMV and driver's licenses there is no ongoing competency test for attorneys. Instead, we have to rely on orders like the judge made to see and evaluate legal work.

Sometimes discovery problems are solely caused by the client. But here it is worth noting the defense attorneys both requested sanctions against Paul Kingston, and not just his clients, for litigation misconduct and the judge for both cases agreed sanctions against the attorney were appropriate.

The two sanctions orders for over $1000 in sanctions were made within two weeks. It could be they are the tip of the iceberg for how often judges sanctions attorney Paul Kingston and his clients.

Paul Kingston was admitted to the California Bar in 1970. Bar Number 46873.

Law Office Paul Kingston
6320 Commodore Sloat Drive
Los Angeles, California 90048

Law School: Southwestern University