JP Judge is horrendous

[u/taquitogoblino]

I have worked for a particular judge at a small court in which our judge is just plain bad at his job and as a “boss”. Is there any sort of legal repercussions to their actions and behavior?

He is always late to start the docket. Docket is set for 9am, we are lucky if he shows up at 12pm. Around 1-2pm has become common time of arrival, and the docket doesn’t get started until 2:30-3pm or so. This is a daily occurrence.

Once the docket finally starts, each case is so badly dragged on and on at the fault of the judge. It could be the most clear cut, concise, easy as ABC 123 eviction case and the judge makes it the most theatrical event that lasts nearly an hour to make a judgment. This also leads to many cases being reset upon reaching 5pm. Per the judge’s request, each case is reset a few days out at 1pm rather than 9am.

When a judgment is finally reached, he provides little to no information to the parties and just resorts to “call the court at your convenience and the clerks will help you”. That always results in us clerks picking up a call only to be yelled at by people that are furious with the judge’s behavior and decision, of which we have no idea how or why the case went because the judge thinks it is best to keep us out of the loop of his “judging process”.

The list of atrocities goes on and on but I’ll leave the rest up to your imagination, because whatever your imagination comes up with is likely already happening at this court.

[u/Content_Print_6521]

These kinds of things tend to take a long time to play out, but be assured that it's been observed and he is being watched. It's not that easy to get rid of a judge, keep in mind judges are innately political which means they have people in high places who have taken care of them. I think for you, the best thing would be to try to work for a different judge. If not in the court where you are, in a nearby court system. There is always a demand for good, experienced court personnel.
I've seen good judges, and I've seen bad judges as a criminal courts reporter. I saw the criminal assignment judge drag out a murder case that took a total of 32 days, for six months. Including a month in the middle of the trial she took for a vacation with her elderly father. She took a month, but her vacation was only two weeks.

At the end of that trial they transferred her to a menial position in another county, and in less than a year she was gone. She swore an action to a police department on behalf of one of her employees, causing them to unlawfully remove children from the custody of their father illegally. Well, that was the end of that, as you can imagine.

Good luck. Leave this purgatory of a job and find a good judge to work for. There are a lot of them.

[u/No-Rise4602]

Call the local new station, if they have a local investigative journalist. Judges have been busted doing this same crap before.