Court Opinion

ID: 9737066
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:14:38.295816+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:42:15.820546
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE KNECHT, specially concurring: I concur but write separately in order to comment upon remarks by the trial judge. For reasons of pique or frustration, the trial judge personalized certain comments about the legislature and a member of this court. We have on occasion criticized the conduct or analysis of a trial judge or an advocate. We may have been abrupt or discourteous at oral argument. We have not criticized lawyers, judges, or legislators for their public service. We sometimes disagree with legislative enactments, but we do not ignore them, and we do not sarcastically announce from the bench “It may come as a surprise to the legislature but on a great number of occasions, the trial court totally ignores what the legislature has suggested and in some cases mandated ***.” The trial judge was either admitting he has regularly ignored the law or was offering the opinion that his colleagues do so. We know the latter is not true, and we trust the former was a comment borne out of frustration. Such comments simply make us all look more like our television caricatures. Why should the public respect and trust the process, when a judge shows disrespect for fellow public servants?