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California Judges to Lose Perks; Some May Leave State

California Supreme Court

The California Supreme Court has voted unanimously not to review Sturgeon v. County of Los Angeles, which means judges in the nation’s largest county may lose up to $50,000 a year in perks.

The decision lets stand a lower court ruling that could void Los Angeles County’s 20-year practice of supplementing judges’ $178,000 salaries and state-provided benefits with perks that amount to almost $50 grand a year.

The ruling by San Diego’s 4th District Court of Appeal held that the practice violated the state Constitution’s requirement that the Legislature “prescribe compensation for judges.” County-funded judicial perks occur in many of the state’s 58 counties, but LA’s appear to be the most lucrative.

Judicial advocates say the state already has trouble attracting judges to the bench, with salaries that often pale in comparison to those of major law firms.

The benefits package includes travel and professional development allowances that judges can take in cash, as well as additional contributions to retirement accounts.

Some California judges have threatened to leave the state if the perks are cut.

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14 COMMENTS

  1. “Some California judges have threatened to leave the state if the perks are cut.”
    ===================================
    Yeah, right! And do what? Take a Bar exam in another state so they could then try to get a judgeship there? I don’t think so; that’s about the most idiotic threat I have ever heard – anyone who made it does not have good judgment and should be off our bench anyway.

    There is a rumor that our legislature, which can’t get a budget passed, has had time to fiddle around with reversing Sturgeon this past week. If that is true, they too should be ousted!

  2. Read here… The Judges are not even doing their job!

    See this case and the CA State Rules of the Court!

    San Diego’s Family Law Court Judges are NOT doing their job!

    courthouseforum.com/forums/thread.php?id=1057400#thread

  3. Leave the state, are you kidding? These are elected officials that get paid more than U.S. Congressmen and they are complaining that $178K is poverty. No wonder, they have no compassion issues a minimum wage child support order when someone is unemployed. It is like telling people to eat cake. I bet you not a single one will leave their power hungry bench.

    Capt Rob Collins
    crispe.org/blog

  4. There are more than enough people in this economy that would have a more common-sense approach to their impartial and independent judgeship. The ones that threatened to leave should basically have Judicial Tenure Complaints filed for attempting to “use the prestige of their office to publicly sway” inappropriately and also they have undermined public confidence by making people think there would be no judges if their pay were adjusted. Send me a list to laryholland@sbcglobal.net and I will file the complaints myself.

    From the California Code of Ethics for Judges
    Canon 2: A Judge Shall Avoid Impropriety and the Appearance of
    Impropriety in All of the Judge’s Activities
    A. Promoting Public Confidence
    B. Use of the Prestige of Judicial Office

    Get Your Justice Live is a live interactive program that is policing the conduct of government, including the judiciary.

    Lary Holland
    Host and Producer

  5. These judges need to be paying back the illegal cash they have taken from the tax payers and they need charges brought against them for receiving misappropriated funds. Their licenses need to be jerked with no retirement. The county has wrongly embezzled citizens tax dollars to these corrupt judges and the county officials who did this need to be arrested and jailed.

  6. Finally they are caught red handed. Next, California needs to look into the contracts that these judges have with their CHild Support Agency, where they fund the courts for their financial interest in receiving Title IV-D funds.

    It’s an inpropriety for them to have financial contracts with an agency. Is it any different than a mortgage company asking for a private contract to re-imburse the judges to provide priority and hear all of their cases so they can foreclose earlier? The only difference is its a state agency that holds the contract, and there is no legislation that supports it.

    These are all violations of their canon, and the laws of California, yet they still exist.

    What happened to the day when judges held these position because they were respected and dignified. Instead, we have money mongers, only willing to do the job if the pay is high. Creeps!

    Joel Johnston
    USSharedParenting.com

  7. It is about time something was done to these bastards. Most of them should be stripped of their robs and thrown in jail. Can out there tell me how to recover my child support money? I proved that I had never seen my alleged kids for 18 years and their was no D.N.A.I furthermore prove that San Bernardino County did not have the jurisdiction to handle the case. I proved that they put a C.P.A. on the their welfare system who had over $35,000.00 worth of assets and while she was getting an M.B.A. you cannot commit welfare fraud and claim juridiction. The children were born in Los Angeles County.

  8. Hey, what if they held an election for all the judges in California next year and no one voted for them? …. Just imagine! …. Stay tuned …. and volunteer when the movement is started!

  9. Being a judge means you are a card carrying member of the Bar. Guess which single segment of America does not have income reported unless they are paid $50,000 or more by a corporation? Lawyers. Its true, check the instructions on 1099-misc. You can not report their income to the Internal Revenue Service. And these are the very people who become judges. The ultimate “cash” business. No wonder these people want their tax-free perks. They are used to them before they ever dawn a robe.

  10. Have a good look at SBX2 11 at the Cal legislature site. The judges hired a lobbyist, the legislature switched the authors the whole thing stinks. Can you recall blanket retroactive immunity ever being given to such a large group? Today in L.A. Sturgeon is being heard again, it will be interesting to see if the judge has the guts to do the right thing and follow the lead of the appelate court in San Diego and stop the “illegal payments” We must clean this up.
    Also, the form 700 issues need to be addressed. The Superior Court Judges are now receiving about 250K per annum. I would bet that 80% (or more) of Cal Lawyers would gladly accept the guaranteed $178k or so or maybe it could be a clean 200k? I know I would. Those judges that threaten to leave the bench or go out of state should leave now.
    I did notice that this article lists no author…… Leaves me to wonder who in fact did write this?

  11. SBX211 is solid proof of a conspiracy in Calif. government. It grants retroactive immunity for 20 years to the judges and those who paid those payments, basically legalizing judicial bribery, just read it. They snuck it through in February’s budget bill.

  12. Okay, here’s the best part. SBX211 was the reason that a judge declared these payments legal in the final chapter of Sturgeon v. LA county. The second book in this continuing series, will delve into the criminality, and conspiracy to commit criminal acts on the public at large, by the entire state government. From the governor, legislature, and attorney general, all the way down to Sheriff baca, who is illegally holding an attorney in solitary confinement, denying his human, and civil rights, while the courts ignore his habeus corpus for almost a year now, with no opposition. This amounts to abduction, false imprisonment, denial of due process. The appellate court that upheld SBX211 as a legitimate law, is also a conspirator, since SBX211 is an ex post facto law, and the constitution states that, “no ex pst facto law shall be passed”, you would think a “judge” would know this sort of thing. So, the argument that “it’s to attract, and retain good judges” just flew out the window.

  13. So the legislature pass’s a bill, and that over rides the state constitution? And I alway’s thought they had to be AMENDED. I had no idea they could sneak an illegal bill into the budget bill and that amends the constitution, well, how about that? Learn something new every day. Gee I wonder if I can sneak something through. California judges got it made, they break the law and someone pass’s a law, making their crime “legal”, they can hear cases in which they are named as defendant, they can break the law to cover each others crimes, with immunity. Plus they get to continue to take bribes from the county.

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