Judge: Jon R. Takasugi, Case: 19STCV33111, Date: 2022-08-18 Tentative Ruling

Case Number: 19STCV33111    Hearing Date: August 18, 2022    Dept: 17

 Superior Court of California

County of Los Angeles

TENTATIVE RULING

DEPARTMENT 17

Attorney Andrew M. Wyatt’s motion to be relieved as counsel is DENIED.

Legal Standard

Motions to withdraw are routinely granted if made in the proper form and presented with proper notice. The court may issue an order allowing an attorney to withdraw from representation, after notice to the client.  (Code Civ. Proc., § 284(2).) 

Discussion

Attorneys Andrew Wyatt brings the instant motion for relief as counsel as to Plaintiff Princess Obienu. This case is set for a final status conference on 9/1/2022, and trial on 9/12/2022.  As part of the motion, Mr. Wyatt requests a 90-120 day trial continuance to allow Plaintiff to retain new counsel to assist her in completing discovery and preparing for trial.

  The only explanation provided for the motion is “[c]onflicts of interest have developed between the attorney and client which have led to irreconcilable differences and an irremedial [sic] breakdown of the attorney-client relationship.” (Wyatt Decl.) Mr. Wyatt offers no further explanation as to the nature of the conflict, or details about when this conflict of interest first arose.

 As such, the Court has no basis for determining whether or not Mr. Wyatt acted with diligence in moving to be relieved as counsel. Given that this Court is not inclined to continue trial, the lack of support for Mr. Wyatt’s motion, and the clear prejudice that would result to Plaintiff if her counsel was relieved a month away from trial, convinces the Court that the motion should be denied.

            The motion is DENIED.

It is so ordered.

Dated:  August    , 2022

   Hon. Jon R. Takasugi
   Judge of the Superior Court

Parties who intend to submit on this tentative must send an email to the court at smcdept17@lacourt.org by 4 p.m. the day prior as directed by the instructions provided on the court website at www.lacourt.org.  If a party submits on the tentative, the party’s email must include the case number and must identify the party submitting on the tentative.  If all parties to a motion submit, the court will adopt this tentative as the final order.  If the department does not receive an email indicating the parties are submitting on the tentative and there are no appearances at the hearing, the motion may be placed off calendar. 

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