Subject: How a Judge is Born in America

From: [email-masked] (aaron.l.hoffmeyer)
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 05:32:18 GMT

Original article was published by the Divorced Men's Association of
Connecticut, Inc.  in a publication called "Court Watcher,"
August/September, 1990.  I took the liberty of re-writing it, because I
didn't like the original all that much.

### Begin

How a Judge is Born in America

To become a judge in any state in the United States, a person first
must become an attorney.  After practicing law for a few years, an
attorney can then decide whether he or she would like to become a judge.
There are two primary ways to obtain that goal.

In some states judges are elected, so potential candidates for
judgeships must become involved in politics to be nominated by their
party to run for election.

Some states have a system wherein candidates' names are submitted to a
committee which makes recommendations to the Governor regarding who they
feel should be nominated and presented to a judiciary committee for
further review.  If the candidates make it this far, a hearing is
convened and the committee reviews the nomination.  All candidates
passing the judicial committee's muster are presented to the
legislature for a vote on their nominations.  Whoever they approve can
be a judge.

Some states utilize a combination of the two methods.

Regardless of the method, anyone who wants to be a judge must be
involved in a political party.  To get recognition within that
political party, they must attend political meetings all the time.
They have little time for a family, because they will be practicing law
all during the day and some nights and they will have to attend many
political events.

The majority of the time such candidates for judgeships can spend with
their children (if they even have any) is on the weekends, and maybe
a few nights a week.  Usually, the big day will be Sunday, church in the
morning, and maybe off to the park or the beach in the afternoon for a
few hours.

When folks who have lives like this become judges, some interesting
things are understood.  To illustrate this, consider the following
scenario:

A father named Joe and a mother named Mary come before the judge seeking
to dissolve their marriage - both seeking custody of the two boys of the
marriage.  Joe and Mary did not have a "traditional" family - one in
which dad works during the day and mom stays at home with the children.
No, Joe and Mary had the more common family, the kind in which both
parents work at paying jobs.  Joe stayed home nights while Mary worked
the second shift at the factory.  Joe worked the first shift.  Mary and
Joe both had to work because they just could not live on the income that
either of them could make individually.

While Mary was off at work during the evenings, Joe took care of his
sons and all their needs.  He started doing this soon after they were
born - as soon as Mary could go back to work.  

Joe has witnesses testify that as a father, he's all right.  They say
he's a nurturing man who not only pushed strollers, gave the children
their bottles, wiped their bottoms and bathed them, but he also took
care of their emotional and intellectual needs.  He taught them and
hugged them, and played with them.  He was not only a father, he was a
friend.  He performed all the acts that "traditionally" were performed
by mothers.  And now Joe is before a judge seeking custody of his
sons.

Mary has witnesses testify that she is a good mother and takes care of
the children's needs.  She claims she didn't need much help from Joe in
raising the two boys, and frankly, he didn't offer much help.  She
complains that he was too harsh with them, and rough-housed with them
too much.  In her opinion, Joe was not a nurturing father.  But she did 
admit to the judge that Joe had stayed up with one son when the son had
the measles and administered medication.  And she couldn't deny their
work schedules and how much time Joe had been with the boys.

Well, the judge is supposed to be listening to this, but he keeps
sitting there thinking about his family.  His wife took care of the
children.  His wife didn't have to work, because as an attorney, he
grossed $100,000 annually, and as a judge, his salary was $85,000.  He
knew that he didn't know the first thing about caring for children.  His
wife and the nanny took care of all the little details.  His projection
of his own sense of self onto Joe made him disregard Joe's statements
and those statements of his witnesses.

Joe makes $22,500 annually and his wife makes $20,000 - for a total of
$42,500.  This family lived in a different world than the world the judge
lived in.  

Well, the judge ends up giving sole custody of the children to Mary and
Joe is granted the privilege of visiting his children on a couple
of weekends a month and for an hour one night a week.  You know, the
usual.  And the judge ordered Joe to pay Mary $125 per week out of his
$300 per week disposable income.  This left Joe with $175 per week to
support himself.  When he asked the judge how he was supposed to live on
$175 per week, the judge told him, "These children have to be supported
and you can find a second job for extra income."

So what's the moral of this little tale?  Well, if you know how a
"traditional" judge is born, then you might be able to understand how
such a judge thinks about families and money.  Knowing how a
traditional judge thinks might inspire you to get a good attorney, the
best possible, to study family law, to study your state constitutional
laws as you file pro-se with your attorney and assist your attorney in
your custody case.

And here are a few pointers that will help you to: 1) determine if your
judge is a "traditional" judge, and 2) do something about it.

1.  Go to court before your case comes up and obtain transcripts of
cases your judge has heard.  Read through these and read the decisions
and comments made by the judge in the cases.  If you find that the judge
is biased, then you know you should avoid this judge.  Or, contact a
local activist group, such as a children's rights group and see what
they think of your judge.  If they have had bad experiences with this
judge, then you are doubly sure that you want to avoid this person.

2.  At this point, you might try to get your case transferred to another
judge or another court.

3.  If you can't get the case transferred, check out when the judge's
term ends.  If there is an election soon, or if the judge is
transferring to another court soon, file for an extension.  

4.  If the judge is up for reappointment, testify at the hearing about
what biased statements you saw in the judge's transcripts and
decisions.  If the judge is reappointed, you could ask that this judge
dismiss him/herself from your case due to personal biases resulting
from you testify against this person.  Writing newspaper editorials or
campaigning against this person could accomplish the same thing.  You
can also write letters to the state and judicial officials that oversee
this judge.

5.  If you still can't get a biased judge removed from your case,
subpoena the judge as a witness.  Make the judge present evidence that
he or she is not biased against men in domestic relations court.  A
judge cannot sit on a case in which he or she is a witness.

6.  If nothing works, try to build a strong case and prepare to appeal
any biased and unfair decisions.  Try to present a comprehensive and
thorough case that illustrates that you are very sincere about your
relationship with your children, prove to the judge that you want to
maintain that relationship.

7.  Or, bypass the judge completely and negotiate a reasonable
settlement with your ex2b.  Sometimes this is impossible, but try to
get the courts to assign a mediator to your case to help with the
negotiations.  Get a Guardian Ad Litem assigned to represent the
children.  This objective voice carries a lot of weight with the
court.

Unfortunately, domestic relations court is an adversarial battleground.
If you try to stay off the battleground, you can avoid allowing a biased
judge to destroy your relationship with your children.

Aaron L. Hoffmeyer
[email-masked]