The world is full of freaks

Some of them are federal judges:
Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, acknowledged in an interview with The Times that he had posted the materials, which included a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a [...]

Lost pants judge looses robe too

Roy Pearson, the Washington, D.C. administrative law judge who garnered attention when he sued a dry cleaner for $54 million over a lost pair of pants, was not reappointed after his term expired last Spring. This belated coda to the Pearson saga is only now being reported, thanks to a FOIA request by the Associated [...]

Irascible jurist disciplined for “inappropriate behavior”

Judge Samuel B. Kent, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Galveston Division, has long been notorious in legal circles and beyond for his strongly-worded opinions. Now he’s in the news, and in the soup, for abusiveness of a different nature. The Fifth Circuit Judicial Council has reprimanded Judge Kent and [...]

Here’s to the Courts of Pennsylvania

The Pennsylvania state court system, in which I practiced for seven years, resembles something conjured up in a novel co-authored by Charles Dickens, Franz Kafka, and James L. Cain — filled with overstuffed nomenclature, byzantine procedures, and a general air of sordidness. The tale of Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce, currently facing federal mail fraud [...]

Ethics charges against litigious ALJ

Roy Pearson’s $65 million lawsuit over a lost pair of pants has landed him in hot water. The American Association for Justice, which represents plaintiffs’ trial lawyers, has filed an ethics complaint against the D.C. administrative law judge. Its great to see the plaintiffs’ bar taking a firm public stand against truly frivolous litigation. If [...]