Comments on: New Orleans judicial expense account spending questioned

By: David Wilson

David Wilson — Wed, 31 May 2006 13:57:13 +0000

A fair contrarian point to what the journalism likely presumes is good watch-dogging. It’s funny – young journos are trained to think that individual expenditures by politicians or judges from taxpayer-supported accounts are such salacious material, but I think it has more to do with the ease of reporting it than actual scandal value. One FOIA and you have the info – a very simple and amoeba-like story. It’s like print journalism’s version of TV news blaring, “What’s in your fridge could kill you! Details at 10.”

But when judges are being “educated” about issues of the day on long junkets by various interest groups (sometimes the defense does this), that’s worthy of note.

By: markm

markm — Wed, 31 May 2006 12:56:47 +0000

That sounds like pretty high travel expenses (assuming these aren’t circuit-riding judges), but to put it in perspective: If the classes Judge Medley conducts for LA defense lawyers at their annual get-together in CO prevents just one retrial for ineffective assistance of counsel, that will save enough to cover Medley’s travels for years.

By: TC

TC — Tue, 30 May 2006 20:08:29 +0000

“$4,400 in taxpayer money was spent to teach a course in Colorado,”

Wasn’t it nice for LA citizens to pay the judge to teach a course in CO?

Betcha CO also paid him to come teach it, as welll as his travel costs don’t ya think?

[Actually, as the cited newspaper article indicates, it was a meeting of Louisiana attorneys in Colorado. — T.F.]

By: MF

MF — Tue, 30 May 2006 19:10:04 +0000

Many very fine judges lead lonely professional lives: they fear they ought not talk law with lawyers because they will be thought to have become biased.

That’s a sad loss. A judge ought to be able to discuss law with peers, whether they be judges or lawyers, to help hone their skills and ways of interpreting the law. Merely keeping current on all published material isn’t sufficient. I’m not a lawyer, but I find that I get far more out of material if it’s interactive instead of one-sided.

By: Nathan S. Lord

Nathan S. Lord — Tue, 30 May 2006 14:14:26 +0000

Judges need changes of pace; these cost money. You are correct that whether the money comes from a salary not as high as a first-year associate’s at a mega law firm or from some sort of allowance–a travel allowance for instance–is not so important. Many very fine judges lead lonely professional lives: they fear they ought not talk law with lawyers because they will be thought to have become biased.