The Almighty and His Servant

8 Responses to “In my defense your honor…”

1. jinnzaman
   June 5th, 2007 at 10:38 pm

   

   Dude! i totally agree with you! I watched one of these “judge” shows the other day with my pops and I couldn’t believe the type of antics that both the judge and the parties engaged in.

   are these really in courts with legal sanctions or do the participants merely engage in a contractual agreement to subject themselves to the show but there arent’ any real legal remedies or appeals?

   what jurisdiction do most of these judges operate in anyway?

2. Suleiman
   June 5th, 2007 at 11:14 pm

   

   It’s actually binding arbitration, and the interesting part is that judgments entered against parties are not paid out of the losing party’s pocket, but by the show’s producers.

   To prevent people from choosing the arbitration to get some easy money, the show’s producers deduct the amount of the judgment against the losing party’s payment for being on the show.

   Which explains a lot really. Why else would you go on national television and embarrass yourself in front of millions of viewers when you know you’ve got a losing case, unless you were getting some serious financial kickback for doing it?

   Apparently though, the “binding” arbitration isn’t quite so binding afterall:

   B.M. v. D.L., the Family Court of Kings County, New York, overturned part of a Judge Judy decision. The parties had appeared in front of Judge Judy over a dispute involving personal property. However, Judge Judy made a decision involving child custody and visitation. The court overturned the custody and visitation part of her decision on two grounds. First, it was a matter that was not covered by the agreement to arbitrate. Second, as a matter of public policy, an arbitrator could not decide child custody and visitation rights. Considering that Judy had been a judge in New York’s family court, it is particularly ironic that she decided to overstep her arbitral authority on this particular issue.

   -From the wikipedia article.

3. hijabihoodlum
   June 7th, 2007 at 6:03 pm

   

   ahhh, that finally makes sense! so really, nobody loses. well i guess it only makes sense in that now i know what motivates people to appear on tv airing their dirty laundry.

4. Suleiman
   June 7th, 2007 at 6:08 pm

   

   Exactly hijabi, why else would you have any possible motivation to go on that show? If you saw the video above, Judge Judy ripped into that eBay scammer like chainsaw!

5. sophister
   June 18th, 2007 at 3:17 pm

   

   Does anyone want to get into a tiff with me? I want to make some money too.

6. Anonymous
   October 29th, 2008 at 9:42 am

   

   Thanks your message has very much helped me:)

7. Anonymous
   October 29th, 2008 at 3:13 pm

   

   Thanks your message has very much helped me:)

8. Anonymous
   October 29th, 2008 at 7:51 pm

   

   Thanks your message has very much helped me:)