Justice: Entertainment or the Real Deal?

I don’t quite get it that so many people love all these judge shows – Judge Judy and Judge Hatchett, Judge Joe Brown and Judge Greg Mathis, Divorce Court and People’s Court, Texas Justice and, God knows, what all else. My mother is one of those who can sit in front of the television for hours following the ridiculous travails of plaintiffs and defendants – usually friends and family members in rather petty but potentially Hatfield versus McCoy conflicts– while wise and wise-cracking judges pronounce decisions on who is right and who is wrong. Who gets the dog. Who gets the car. Who gets reimbursed.

Perhaps that is why so many people – pundits in print or on the Internet and lawyer-commentators on TV – have been so quick to see Judge Larry Seidlin building an audition tape as he presided over an admittedly weird hearing in Florida over who should decide where Anna Nicole Smith should be buried. The former Bronx resident, who drove a taxi and studied law at night before eventually landing in Florida, establishing a legal career and becoming the judge assigned to the Anna Nicole Smith case, IS quite a character. But some prominent members of the Florida bar vouch for his sanity while laughing at his quirkiness.

I spent lots of time in court in years past – as a reporter, I should say – and, yes, there were quite a few characters among the judiciary. I swear that the sitcom Night Court was based on a judge about whom I had written. He once had a defendant flip a coin to determine what his sentence would be. And I’ve seen a judge walk through the courtroom during the night session of arraignments and introduce himself and explain what the “audience” of friends, family members and homeless people just looking for a place to keep warm could expect to see. I’ve known a judge who wore cufflinks, one of which said “Bull” and the other “Shit”, and he’d subtlety flash them at reporters covering proceedings before him. That was his commentary on the testimony we were hearing. One judge, with whom I was sitting as a reporter observing proceedings up close asked me what sentence I would give in a particular case and then, much to my horror, pronounced that sentence to the defendant.

I’d suggest that, rather than watching judges on TV, more people combine their interest in the general subject of courts and justice and do good at the same time: Volunteer to be a court observer, watching real trials and contributing to reports on how real courts actually work – or don’t.

In New York, we have, among other avenues, the Fund for Modern Courts, which has a Citizen Court Monitoring Project and a Citizen Jury Project. (www.moderncourts.org; 212-541-6741). Check YOUR local listings, as they say. But get up off the couch.