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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Madness From the Bench

   I never cease to be amazed by human behavior. I don’t mind amazement, but when it comes at the expense of common sense, it tends to sting a bit. This stinging sensation seems to happen quite a bit in our legal system, particularly when it comes from the bench the judge sits on.

   We look at judges to be the fair arbitrator of our disagreements in accordance to the letter of the law. How quickly we forget or abruptly we are reminded...that a judge is not some computer program or supernatural being, but very much human. They are exactly like those they pass judgement over, complete with all the flaws and problems that plague all of humanity. I don’t have an issue with that...I mean, really...what is the alternative? A computer without human compassion or capacity for emotion? I would rather not travel that road if at all possible.

   So, I can’t knock judges for being human, what else are they going to be? My issue is when  they abandon common sense for madness and smash the gavel on it. There should be some sort of process for dealing with judges that habitually do this...and by “process” I mean something quick, immediate and effective for correcting decisions clearly without enough common sense to make change. All jokes aside, people’s lives are being ruined by the ineptness of those we trust to fairly apply the law.
   I’ve personally never had to go before a judge that thought common sense was a crime...but I personally know people that have. Recently a close friend went before a judge for an ongoing situation with visitation rights. Quite simply, he wants to be a bigger part of his child’s life, and wants his child to be a part of his. A man with absolutely no criminal history, no history of abuse on anyone...he even has great credit, was lambasted by the judge for failure to fill his visitation obligation for two years.

  I don’t know what your thinking...but if you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know the twist is about to drop. He hasn’t had a visitation with his son for two years...because he had been deployed to Iraq to fight for his country...for two years. The judge, in all her wisdom, retorted that his reason was absolutely no excuse at all for missing his visits. Huh..? Excuse me..? No excuse...? He’s fighting for the right for this judge to be a complete simpleton and that doesn’t explain adequately why he never made his required visitation?
   Never mind the fact that he went before the court to amend the visitation schedule now that he is back, so that he could spend MORE time with his son...but shame on him for not telling the insurgents to stop shooting at him so he could go AWOL and see his son.

   Forgive my sarcasm, it’s a coping mechanism...but this is the sort of thinking that defies logic. That a judge would dismiss his active service as if he were simply sitting home on the couch in front of a television is reprehensible...and you can consider me thoroughly disgusted.

   As I said, I can’t knock judges for being human...but I’m all over them for being nonsensical, and dispensing madness from a bench that we go before to receive reasonable judgments under the law. Take a moment, please, to visit the links below...and help put a stop to the madness.


UPDATE:

The madness continues as a judge has ordered a child renamed because of her personal beliefs !! When will there be some oversight for a judge that breaches their duty?



http://divorcehelp.com/blog/when-judges-get-it-wrong-it-can-ruin-lives…/
http://www.judgesabovethelaw.com/
http://www.cscja-acjcs.ca/role_of_judge-en.asp?l=5

7 comments:

  1. Wow, that kind of action is intolerable. How does one appeal against this kind of misjustice?
    I can fully appreciate your point that if he had been a 'delinquant dad' then the ruling may have been fair.
    You never mentioned the mother's perspective, is she opposed to granting extra visitation for the dad? Maybe they could come to a personal agreement outside of the court system.

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  2. Ian,

    He actually got lucky and was part of the case load "overflow" that went to another judge, so there was some temporary justice, but he will always have to go before the original judge every time they go to court to amend the situation in any way.

    I didn't want to get too profound with their personal situation as I was just highlighting the judges' incredibly ridiculous point of view. The mother, though, is not making it easy for him.

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  3. Judges have entirely too much unchecked power in our society. We're all fallible, but fallibility married to that kind of power can have devastating effects.

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  4. Arbitrators equally have entirely too much unchecked power especially when dealing with milti state jurisdiction that pertain to the particular case they are arbitrating. They are more interested in continuing an ongoing relationship with their own state attorneys than looking at the facts and applying the other state's applicable laws. Arbitration is a joke. People would be better served in court when dealing with multistate jurisdictional cases.

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  5. The madness continues as a judge has ordered a child renamed because of her personal beliefs!! When will there be some oversight for a judges breach of duty?

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/11/mother-of-messiah-ordered-to-change-babys-name-after-christian-judge-rules-it-a-conflict-with-her-beliefs/

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