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.

This content has been archived.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

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]