Many of you know my thoughts on private judges, as in rent-a-judge. These are retired bench officers who you can hire by the hour to help you avoid the courthouse. Some have a management group that takes care of all the paperwork, for a cut of the fees, and some retired judges are on their own. Why not? All those years of two hundred grand a year, and now they can make $1200 an hour! Almost like some of those fat cat lawyers who stood before them in DIVORCE court all those years raking in the big bucks! Personally, if you hire a private judge, you could be walking into a legal ambush just my opinion. A sitting judge might not like you or your case and has no other reason to drop the proverbial anvil on your head because of that. A rent-a-judge has financial reasons and or allegiances to a law firm that is feeding them great assignments! Splitting the baby. How do they do it without cutting off the hand that feeds them?
Some judges have been public interest lawyers who got appointed to the bench, and that was their goal. Some were big shots in large firms. Many took massive pay cuts to become judges. After all, being called Your Honor is pretty cool, and the title is a cherry on top of a law career. For some judges, they were already wealthy before getting the appointment to the bench, and others never made a fortune.
Take it from me, judges who sit in towns like Boston and New York can be godlike. Godlike is not happening in Los Angeles County, this I promise you. The way some litigants behave in the courtrooms in Los Angeles, especially in DIVORCE courts, is improper and rude. It is incredible the way litigants lie and speak before the court; I am shocked at times.
Money, money, money, money
For that mean
Mean green
Getting back to the cash. Once retired, several of these judges can earn a fat payday in excess of $500,000.00 a year and more as rent-a-judges, plus the generous retirement package that they earned while on the bench. All of a sudden life is a little better, and these folks have a right to the rewards for making it to retirement.
Well, it gets better. Many litigants are malcontents to begin with, and love firing their lawyers and wanting to switch judges that they feel are unfair. And trying to get rid of the chosen rent-a-judge is often on the agenda just to be vindictive and annoying. Anything to do with DIVORCE is a total snake pit, ask anyone, anyone who will tell you the truth. Some litigants are ruthless and just mean spirited. The new rule will be that if you decide to hire a rent-a-judge and this is the route for you, you will have that judge for two years! This is great news for the rent-a-judge, the bank known as DIVORCE law will be open for two years, and all will be good in The Wonderful World of DIVORCE.
By John Nazarian
Straight Talk with John J. Nazarian, Private Investigator
February 10, 2019
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