How Come We Don’t Review Who Judges Our Judges? A story of Judge Wendy Coats et al.

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2013

We all know that our justice system is not fair. One obvious way to improve this is to have better – as in more thorough, inclusive and transparent – judicial review. You can file this under: ‘none of this is hard.’ However, my Kafkaesque experience trying to reach somebody in the judicial branch says otherwise.

“One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to facts.” C.S. Lewis

Three men talked about how they felt their treatment was demoralizing and demeaning in front of Northern California Judge Wendy Coats. They were in court dealing with domestic matters relating to divorce.

“There’s nothing we can do we are powerless against her and her whims. She’s shouting at people in court, rolling her eyes, scoffing,” one said.

“As a father I don’t get heard in the courtroom I get looked down on,” Travis Sheridan shared. “It’s been unfair and biased.”

Jeremy White is a father of two. “I came out of those first hearings with Coats thinking, I felt like my ex got away with breaking the law and our custody agreement, cool.“