This article in the NY Times effectively puts together the issues facing country lawyers in courts where the judges are more likely to be retired truckers than law school graduates. I have never been a fan of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. I have a problem withbureaucratss being able to unseat elected officials, however until NY agrees to have all judges at least be members of the NY State Bar, I think that the Commission needs to be better funded.
Just a couple of notes:
Larry Goldman, past chair of the commission calls for all judges to be lawyers. Goldman is right.
Second the picture of the Cholchester Court House (a garage really) on the front page of the article is unfair. It actually is spacious and having litigated there, the Judge and his wife/clerk were fair and polite to me even when I was very late. Having court in a garage (or barn as in Lloyd Harbor on Long Island) is weird though.
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2 comments:
You hit on one item that I disliked about an otherwise good article: the value of the court being tied to the appearance. I've been before very competent justices in towns where there simply wasn't the budget for a separate courtroom. I've also been before well-intentioned but largely unread men in plush, carpeted single-use courtrooms.
Here in Head of the Harbor, Village authority in the Justice's hands, and the police and other Village officials is wielded with blatant prejudice. It isn't an issue so much of incompetence (though that is manifest) but of tyranny and hidden agendas... Some residents have been driven to sell their homes and move away because of this! It seems that filing complaints to the Judicial Oversight Commission will bring little and distant help, if any. We are a very small village, and people are afraid to speak up against the entrenched power structure. Is it possible to have a Village disincorporated? What are the criteria? Thanks a million for any help you can give me.
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