"Unfamiliarity w/basic legal principles is remarkably common" Broken Bench

[WePurrsevere]

Although this report series is centers around NY's justice system NY is one of 30 states that still use this antiquated system of justice. Is your state one of them?

If you have not read part one please do so. The the cited cases of small town injustice are mind boggling to lovers of true American justice.
NYT's - Part One here: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/25/nyregion/25courts.html
(Previous DU thread here: http://tinyurl.com/hk5w5) - (there's a link to state by state justice system info)

NYT's Part Two - Small-Town Justice, With Trial and Error "You learn by mistakes"
http://tinyurl.com/genz8

<snip>
Justice Gori told the commission that he had never heard of the elementary legal rule that bars a judge, except in the most extraordinary circumstances, from secret contact with one side of a case. “It’s not even explained in my manual,” he said.

An unfamiliarity with basic legal principles is remarkably common in what are known as the justice courts, legacies of the Colonial era that survive in more than 1,000 New York towns and villages.

For generations, justices have hailed them as “poor man’s courts,” where ordinary people can get simple justice with little formality or expense. But there are few more vivid spots to view their shortcomings than here in one of New York’s poorest corners: Franklin County, a place of rugged beauty on the Canadian border where only one of the 32 local justices is a lawyer.

The county’s justices have repeatedly drawn the attention of state judicial conduct officials, with 15 publicly disciplined since the late 1970’s, some twice. Justice Gori’s errors pale in comparison with those of some others: One justice freed a rape suspect on bail as a favor to a friend. Another sentenced a welfare recipient to 89 days in jail after she failed to pay a $1.50 cab fare. Franklin County justices have presided drunk, fixed cases and denied lawyers to defendants. One failed to appoint a lawyer for a 19-year-old mentally retarded alcoholic.
</snip>

Edited to add link to DU thread on Part 3:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2232368

[Toots]

1. "bars a judge from secret contact with one side of a case".

Kind of like Scalia and Cheney....Oh that wasn't secret I guess so it is just fine...:banghead: