Pointing Out Corruption in the State Judiciary
In order to become a judge you must contribute to the political party of your choice and avoid controversy. Judgeships are essentially for sale, and all the lawyers know it, even though the public does not.
February 05, 2020 at 01:34 PM
3 minute read
If you want to become a state court judge in New York it is simple. If you want to be a town or village judge, you need not attend or graduate from law school or pass the bar exam. You need not go through a character and fitness review. You can be a barber or a gas station attendant. Fifty-nine percent of the approximately 2,300 town and village justices in New York are not attorneys. While these facts involving these colonial courts are startling enough, a far more vexing concern is how one becomes a state court judge and what these judges do once they get there.
Supreme Court justices make $208,000 per year together with a pension, free medical and five weeks of paid vacation. In order to become a judge you must contribute to the political party of your choice and avoid controversy. Judgeships are essentially for sale, and all the lawyers know it, even though the public does not.
Political parties and their bosses can agree among themselves which candidates should be cross-endorsed even without any prior judicial experience. This means that they are virtually guaranteed of election and yet they assemble campaign committees, solicit contributions and kick back to the political parties endorsing them. Lawyers contribute to these campaigns because they know the judges, once elected, will remember their contributions and reward them with favorable rulings and assignments. Forensic experts such as accountants and psychologists also make their contributions expecting the same benefits.
When Mario Cuomo was governor he proposed the merit selection of judges. It was supported by the New York State Bar Association but not by the rank-and-file legal organizations, the Judiciary or the State Legislature. It was not approved.
If we are going to elect judges, lawyers should be banned from contributing to judicial campaigns. If anyone also was involved in helping the judge to secure his or her nomination, or contributed to the judicial campaign, judges should be required to reveal that on the record and recuse themselves.
The practice ordered by the court of the so-called married spouse (usually a man) paying directly the fees of attorney for the children and fees for experts should also be discontinued. This practice creates proprietary interests in which these attorneys and experts favor their benefactors. The AFC's and experts should not know who is paying them. These funds should be paid to an administrator who can then disburse them.
There are a great many cases within our judicial system in which unknowing parties or litigants are victims of the endemic corruption that abides there. In some cases these victims are women and children who have experienced violence and/or death. In these cases, Band-Aid solutions are proposed rather than recognized as a coverup of the corruption that exists from top to bottom.
Thomas F. Liotti is an attorney and village justice on Long Island.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllCourt System Names New Administrative Judges for New York City Courts in Leadership Shakeup
3 minute readRetired Judge Susan Cacace Elected Westchester DA in Win for Democrats
In Eric Adams Case and Other Corruption Matters, Prosecutors Seem Bent on Pushing Boundaries of Their Already Awesome Power
5 minute readTrending Stories
- 1Tuesday Newspaper
- 2Judicial Ethics Opinion 24-85
- 3Decision of the Day: Administrative Court Finds Prevailing Wage Law Applies to Workers Who Cleaned NYC Subways During Pandemic
- 4Trailblazing Broward Judge Retires; Legacy Includes Bush v. Gore
- 5Federal Judge Named in Lawsuit Over Underage Drinking Party at His California Home
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250