The state Legislature last week approved an audit of the Commission on Judicial Performance, the state agency charged with overseeing the conduct of some 2,000 judges behind what critics have long contended is a curtain of confidentiality and secrecy. The audit is the first in the 55-year history of the agency. It comes at a time of stepped up criticism by litigants and legislators, who decry … [Read more...]
Is Anybody Judging the Judges? The California Legislature Wants Answers
A joint committee of the California Legislature has authorized an audit of the Commission on Judicial Performance, the only entity that can discipline or remove a state judge. A coalition of two dozen groups reflecting a wide range of interests, led by the Center for Judicial Excellence wrote letters, made calls and sent emails to urge the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC) to call for … [Read more...]
California State Bar reform bill stalls as negotiations break down
With scarcely two weeks remaining in the Legislature’s biennial session, many of its remaining high-profile issues appear to be stalled. Now, after negotiations broke down late last week, you can add much-needed reform of the State Bar to the no-fly list, along with Gov. Jerry Brown’s transportation tax, housing reform and reauthorization of the state’s plan to reduce carbon … [Read more...]
Dropped and dismissed: Child sex abuse lost in the system
Reporter Tennessee Watson says she was sexually abused by her gymnastics coach when she was a kid in the 1980s. More than 25 years later, when she learned he still was coaching children, she called the police. Her inside account of the painful process of seeking justice in her own case exposes discrepancies in prosecutors’ responses to reports of child sexual abuse and spotlights a lack of … [Read more...]
First-Ever State Audit Aims to Hold Judges Accountable
Lawmakers have called for an audit of California’s Commission on Judicial Performance for the first time in the agency’s 56-year history. The commission, which is responsible for disciplining judges, has drawn the ire of activists who say it protects bad jurists and from bench officers who say it over-penalizes them for minor missteps. A joint audit committee of the … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 85
- 86
- 87
- 88
- 89
- …
- 129
- Next Page »