Do attorneys pay off district court judges under the table?
Thursday, October 11th, 2007 at
4:11 am
The Boss asked:
For example, Some kid gets caught driving with his liscense suspended. He hires an attorney for $2000 to represent him in his case. Then Kid and Attorney go to the pre-trial and all of the sudden the case is closed. No charge, no fine….
Now are these judges getting a cut of the attorneys fee under the table? Obviously the judge knows the attorney is making great money and wants his cut.. Is this true?
For example, Some kid gets caught driving with his liscense suspended. He hires an attorney for $2000 to represent him in his case. Then Kid and Attorney go to the pre-trial and all of the sudden the case is closed. No charge, no fine….
Now are these judges getting a cut of the attorneys fee under the table? Obviously the judge knows the attorney is making great money and wants his cut.. Is this true?
Yes they do.
does a bear crap in the woods???
Most of the time the offer has to go through the prosecutor. I work in the court system and from what I see if the defense has a good case then it will be dropped(PERIOD)
I really really doubt it.
What that 2 grand really buys is a couple of high speed typists that will simply bury a prosecutor under a pile of paperwork that weighs more than the case is worth to him. DUI? Let’s see all the records for the breathalyzer machine, detailing when it was last calibrated, by whom, and we want to know their life story to make sure they’re qualified, and what about the qualifications of the people that taught them, and what was the weather like that day, doesn’t weather dictate more frequent calibration, yada yada yada.
It happens with civil suits, too.
I really think the bribery is less common than people presume. If there’s corruption going on, it’s in the overcharging in the first place, or the filing of a mountain of specious paperwork.
It is rare, but it happens. The FBI ran a major sting in Chicago a few years back and got a few crooked judges. There were also a couple caught taking bribes in NYC as I recall.
The incidence of a judge getting paid off is virtually non-existent. The prosecutor is the one who decides whether to go forward or drop charges.
State district courts and prosecutors like efficient administration and moving things along. When an attorney gets involved, the possibility that there may be a trial or discovery or depositions leads the prosecution to make an offer to just settle it without the hassle of dealing with some one who, because he has an attorney, actually knows his rights.