Robert N. Kwan
How Judge Kwan rules, drawn from 8 signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
About Judge Kwan
Robert N. Kwan served as a United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Central District of California from February 2007 until his retirement from regular service in February 2021 and later served by recall. Before joining the bench, he spent eighteen years as an Assistant United States Attorney in Los Angeles.
Judge Kwan's practices and standing orders
Rules for cases before Judge Kwan, as published on the court's website (checked October 10, 2026). Judges revise these often, so confirm the current version on the court's site before you file.
Key rules
Trial
Plaintiffs and movants must serve direct-testimony declarations 21 days before trial; defendants and respondents have 14 days.
“Plaintiffs/movants must serve the direct testimony declarations of their witnesses no later than 21 days before the first day of trial. Defendants/respondents must serve the direct testimony declarations of their witnesses no later than 14 days before the first day of trial.”
Trial
File and serve written objections to direct-testimony declarations no later than seven days before trial.
“You must file and serve written evidentiary objections to any declaration no later than 7 days before the first day of trial, or otherwise, your objections may be deemed waived.”
Standing orders for every case in this court
Orders the court applies to all of its cases, whichever judge has them, as published on the court's website (checked October 10, 2026).
How Judge Kwan decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
A prejudgment attachment request must satisfy the remedy's strictly construed statutory requirements, including the requirement that the underlying claim be contract-based.
“the California attachment statutes are strictly construed”
A claim should survive dismissal when material timeliness questions remain factual rather than resolvable from the pleadings.
“there is a factual issue regarding timeliness”
Procedural preferences
A party seeking remote witness testimony should request permission in the pretrial stipulation or by written application at least 21 days before the evidentiary hearing.
“file a written application for permission to call a witness by remote means at least 21 days before the evidentiary hearing”
Parties may ordinarily choose an in-person or remote appearance unless the court orders otherwise.
“Counsel and self-represented parties may choose to appear in person in the courtroom or remotely on ZoomGov”
Cautions
Live testimony may not be presented remotely without specific court authorization.
“No live testimony, however, will be permitted at a hearing by ZoomGov unless specifically authorized by the court”
In a debtor’s stay request, he denied the motion for lack of the required written notice and applied the local rules to the self-represented litigant.
“Additionally, the court denies Debtor’s motion for stay of the bankruptcy case because the motion was not accompanied by a written notice of motion as required by Local Bankruptcy Rule 9013-1(c)(2) on the mandatory court form, Hearing Notice, Form F9013-1.1.HEARING.NOTICE. Even though Debtor is a self-represented litigant, he is required to comply with the court’s rules the same as parties represented by counsel as stated in Local Bankruptcy Rule 9011-2(d).”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“the court will deny Debtor’s motion to vacate”
“court will deny Debtor’s motions to revise and/or”
“The court will deny the motions not because they”
“Otherwise, the motion is denied.”
“the motion is granted as to this claim, which is dismissed”
“The motion to compel arbitration is denied.”
“The motion for stay pending appeal is granted in part and denied in part.”
“the court denies Plaintiff’s motion for right to attach”
“must be denied. A separate final order is being filed”
“reconsideration is hereby DENIED based on the following.”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Seven terminated sampled matters lasted 56 to 937 days, with a median of 289 days. Three of the ten sampled matters remained pending. This boundary sample is descriptive and is not a complete caseload census.
Draft for Judge Kwan with the record in hand
Ezel grounds your drafting and research in this profile: what has persuaded Judge Kwan, and what has not, cited to the signed orders.
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