...The California Constitution requires all judges to decide cases within 90 days after they have been fully submitted and argued. If a judge fails to do so, then he forfeits his salary. (See Article 6, Section 19 of the Constitution at this link.) They are required to regularly submit signed affidavits stating that everything is on track, so that their paycheck may be released.◼ Bigger story than false salary affidavit by Judge Wilson is failure to disclose that the D.A had requested his pay records, will this undo past rulings? - John Chiv/Words Worth
It is these affidavits, the commission says, that Wilson has fudged. While claiming that he had cleared all his cases on schedule, he had actually been late to various degrees — sometimes up to a month late.
Heavy workload is no excuse...
Monday, January 25, 2016
Another Humboldt County Judge in trouble
◼ Another Humboldt Judge Regularly Submitted Fake Paperwork to Get Paid, State Commission Finds - Hank Sims/Lost Coast Outpost
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I agree that heavy workload is no excuse... But it is an explanation.
ReplyDeleteDo I think there should be consequences to the Judge's actions? Yes. We know that anyone else who falsely signs such a document winds up with Big Big Trouble (everyone remembers the passing of Proposition 1313, the "You're in Big Big Trouble" initiative). Judges should not be exempt.
But we also need to work on what is going wrong with the system. It is not enough to simply punish an over-worked judge. Merely mandating deadlines for decisions solves nothing and probably contributes to more than one or two miscarriages of justice.
There needs to be an adequate number of judges and courts to carry the load. What we are doing now is just not working.
MOLA, you hit the nail on the head with that last paragraph.
DeleteHumboldt is short 2 judges. Not counting the one who just retired, so really 3. They had to borrow from the state to keep afloat. The Courts are just an absolute wreck. Feel sorry for those Judges.
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