Incredible Mag

Judges Often Turn To Fellow Jurists

Judges Often Turn To Fellow Jurists

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Federal district judges are very often described as the typical deciders&comma; whether written options or at the bench&period; But sometimes situation gets heated like when a different question arises&comma; the parties disagree with each other and the answers are not so obvious&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Thus they have to rely on the most rarely discussed resource&colon; the jurist to jurist lifeline&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Around one dozen judges were interviewed in Manhattan’s Federal district Court and the results show that every single one of them had telephoned colleagues when legal questions puzzled them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I can tell you that everyone calls associates for advice&comma; mainly when we get gnarly jury notes&comma;” said the Chief Judge Loretta A&period; Preska&comma; a former member of the bench from more than two decades&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The practice is quite longstanding&colon; Judge Pierre N&period; Leval&comma; judge at the federal appeals court also said that when he became a trial judge&comma; he asked aassociate&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;what to do when you’re baffled&quest;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The colleague wrote four digits on a scrap of paper and handed over to him&comma; it was the phone extension for Judge Edward Winfield&comma; a genius on the court&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Put it on your desk in the robing room and call him when you’re stuck&period; We all do it&comma;” his associate said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In the recent trials happening in Manhattan&comma; Judge Katherine B&period; Forrest presided against the government on the acceptability of a specific document&comma; but later on after a break&comma; she said she had changed her view&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I spoke to three colleagues — judges here&comma;” she added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Her defense lawyer condemned&comma; but Judge Forrest stipulated that it was important that she get her facts right&comma; and portraying on the expertise and experience of fellow federal judges was sometimes useful &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;when one is pressed for time in dealing with these kinds of issues&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Indeed&comma; a lot of us call each other&comma;” she added&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;People call me a lot&comma; including many senior judges&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">On appeals courts&comma; where all the judgments are typically made in groups&comma; collaboration is the rule&period; But it’s different for trial judges they are considered as solitary actors&comma; the captains answerable only to a higher court&period; This makes a trial judge calling for advice seems unusual for the outsiders&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In another of the recent trial before Judge Forrest&comma; the defendant was Ross W&period; Ulbricht&comma; he was accused for running the Silk Road website for drug dealers selling illegal drugs&period; After the judge said that she had consulted with the three colleagues&comma; Mr&period; Ulbricht’s lawyer&comma; Joshua L&period; Dratel disagreed with her approach<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I understand the value of consulting and all of that&comma; but&comma; I mean&comma; the court ruled — it’s not the Court of Appeals&comma;” Mr&period; Dratel said&comma; he also added&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The court is here&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">In one of the interviews&comma; Mr&period; Dratel elaborated&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;As an advocate&comma;” he said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;you always like to be able to argue your position directly to the decider&comma; and if other people are contributing to the decision&comma; I’m robbed of that opportunity&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Judge Forrest denied to respond to Mr&period; Dratel’s comment as the case was still pending&period; But speaking generally&comma; she said that the only motive to consult the fellow judges is that she tries to seek for different prospective&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;specifically to ensure that I have examined an issue from all angles&period;” She added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I value my colleagues’ input&comma;” she said&comma; adding that in the previous cases&comma; no judge made a decision &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;other than me&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The judges interviewed said that they would not seek any kind of guidance from an outside source&comma; like a professor&comma; a jurist or some other court&period; However&comma; a legal ethics professor seeking help from a judge from the same court about a question of law is permitted by the judicial conduct rules&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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