Posted by
NOTLEGALROADKILLYET on Tuesday, September 26, 2006 12:37:14 AM
Last week my attorney and my judge held the fourth or fifth pre-trial conference on my lawsuit. The defense attorney not only didn't bother to show up, when the law clerk called him, his phone was disconnected. So much for that trial date.
It didn't much matter. We have not one more discoverable document than we had when the judge reversed his reluctant decision to issue a default judgment because he couldn't see a pattern of dilatory behavior 8 months ago.
If the past is prelude, the judge will once again ignore his ethical and court rule requirements to sanction and report this attorney. (Edited to prevent the judge from doing what he has yet to do over a three year period and then using his action as a basis for a lawsuit. Do I think this could happen? You betcha-recall that while litigants cannot sue judges for their performance, judges can sue litigants for commenting on it.)
There are two sets of folks who ought to be squirming over this event. One is the local Judicial Retention Commission who couldn't bring themselves to inform the public of this judge's performance in my lawsuit.
The other is the State Supreme Court which is directly responsible for the fact that this judge is tolerating this behavior and I am powerless to do anything. Well, not totally powerless. I blog!
This is exactly why we need judicial term limits, and much more!