Harvey A Schneider

After 12 years on the bench, Superior Court Judge Roberta Ralph is under attack, challenged for reelection by a candidate rated "well qualified" by the Los Angeles County Bar Assn., while the Bar rates Ralph as only "qualified." Bar officials, however, will not explain why they decided to downgrade Ralph from the "well qualified" rating they gave her when she first ran to "qualified" this time, and her opponent, Encino attorney Harvey A.

Day after day the wheelchair-bound plaintiff in the elevator accident case sat in the courtroom without moving a muscle. When it was her time to testify, court attendants struggled for five minutes to help her onto the witness stand. Then, recalled Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Harvey A. Schneider, who presided over the trial, came a case-shattering surprise, a moment of courtroom melodrama worthy of a television script.

Day after day the wheelchair-bound plaintiff in the elevator accident case sat in the courtroom without moving a muscle. When it was her time to testify, court attendants struggled for five minutes to help her onto the witness stand. Then, recalled Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Harvey A. Schneider, who presided over the trial, came a case-shattering surprise, a moment of courtroom melodrama worthy of a television script.

After 12 years on the bench, Superior Court Judge Roberta Ralph is under attack, challenged for reelection by a candidate rated "well qualified" by the Los Angeles County Bar Assn., while the Bar rates Ralph as only "qualified." Bar officials, however, will not explain why they decided to downgrade Ralph from the "well qualified" rating they gave her when she first ran to "qualified" this time, and her opponent, Encino attorney Harvey A.

Moving On: A court hearing Tuesday cleared the way for Alain Bernheim and writer Art Buchwald's three-year-old case against Paramount Pictures--over conception of the 1988 hit film "Coming to America"--to enter the damages phase on March 2. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Harvey A. Schneider granted Paramount's motions to limit the kinds of evidence that will be admissible.

Bob Pool's Dec. 23 story on the lengthy legal battle over the assets of the Philosophical Research Society indicates how tenuous is the nobility of philosophy in the face of materialistic greed. As a friend of PRS for more than 30 years, I was well acquainted with Manly Hall's wise and prudent management of the institution he founded more than six decades ago. Therefore, many of us viewed with alarm the sudden appearance of Daniel Fritz and associates, who seemed unduly influential over a man noted for his independence of thought and action.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has set aside an $8,000 civil judgment against a Torrance man and said he will give the man a second chance to prove that he did not illegally eavesdrop on neighbors who he suspected were operating a drug lab. When Phill Coleman returns to court Dec. 8, he will attempt to persuade Judge Harvey A. Schneider that he was a good Samaritan reporting suspected drug activity and that he did not invade his neighbors' privacy.

While it rated only three short columns ("Judge Rules Nativity Scene Violates Constitution," Times, Jan. 11), the denial of the display of religious symbols on government property is moot. How can anyone enforce the judgment of the court? Does it include events I have witnessed such as religious theme stamps sold in the post office, religious jewelry worn by athletes playing in a public stadium, bumper stickers on a public street, Bibles on school library shelves, symbols in the windshields of cars entering a national forest, chapels on a military base, religious symbols on the uniform of a military chaplain, solicitors for religious groups on the street in their door-to-door canvasses, religious structures of Indians on reservations, coins with "In God We Trust" when I enter a national park, or priests and nuns doing business in city hall?

Film critic Michael Medved was paid $200 an hour to assist Paramount Pictures in defending the breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by syndicated columnist Art Buchwald, he testified Friday in Los Angeles Superior Court. Medved, co-host of "Sneak Previews," a weekly program carried nationally on public television, said he is a sometime "script doctor" who occasionally writes screenplays, although none has been turned into a film. He said he sometimes gives movie producers marketing advice.

A water agency has appealed a court order that it pay $470,000 to attorneys for an employee who won a discrimination lawsuit against the district and $40,000 in damages. The appeal is by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District. Last year Jonathan Vo was awarded $40,000 after a Los Angeles County jury found the water district had failed to prevent discrimination and permitted a hostile work environment where Vo was the victim of racial slurs.

In a case that shed light on the murky world of studio accounting practices, Paramount Pictures and humorist Art Buchwald announced Tuesday that they have settled their seven-year legal battle over the film "Coming to America." Under terms of the settlement, reached after a year of negotiations, Buchwald and his producing partner, Alain Bernheim, are to receive $825,000, and a trial court judgment against Paramount has been vacated.

A jury in Downtown Los Angeles found a former convict guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday in the 1993 arson death of his father, a retired police officer who claimed he was the inspiration for the "T.J. Hooker" television series. Although the show's creator disputed the claim, saying actor William Shatner's portrayal of the world-weary cop was pure Hollywood fiction, the life of LAPD Sgt. Thomas Warren Hooker's life ended with the cruel irony of a true-crime story.