At 82, Judge Judy Finally Admits What We All Suspected – HT
Did Judge Judy really call President Donald Trump dumb? Why does Judge Joseph Waftner hate her so much? Judge Judy has been described as a bad person. There have been accusations that she treats people harshly and that’s just the beginning. Her critics have also said Judy isn’t qualified to be judge because she has been disbarred.
Are these allegations against Judge Judy true? Judge Judy has decided to clear the air and what she has said is what people have suspected all along. In 2024, before the United States of America’s presidential elections, Judge Judy endorsed Nikki Haley and wanted her to win the Republican primaries over Donald Trump.
Judge Judy is not a fan of both Trump and Joe Biden and didn’t want them to contest for the president of the United States at the time. She believed the two men didn’t have the intellectual capacity to lead America forward. Judge Judge, who many people love, claimed the country wouldn’t head in a positive direction if both Biden and Trump won the election.
She even said Trump only won in 2016 due to luck, but got some things right during his presidency. However, Judy believed that Trump didn’t have anything beneficial to offer America. Is Judy right? Usually, she tries as much as possible to stay away from politics. Before 2024, the last time that she endorsed a candidate was in 2020 when she backed Michael Bloomberg in his bid for the Democratic nomination.
Even then, she was certain Trump wasn’t a great president and now she is so sure that Trump would destroy America. Should Judge Judy have even nominated anyone in the first place? Do you think that she is right that Trump would destroy America? Her endorsement of Nikki Haley didn’t have the effect she thought she would have because Haley lost the Republican primary to Trump and Americans overwhelmingly voted for Trump in the main elections.
Did Judy regret her endorsement of Haley? That endorsement caused a division in her fan base. Some felt she should have endorsed Trump. Others said she shouldn’t taken part in politics at all. But Judy didn’t care. She believed going against Trump and Biden was the right thing to do. She probably was thinking her endorsement of Haley would help her win the primary because of how popular her shows are.
She thought it would have the same effect Oprah Winfreyy’s show had on Barack Obama becoming president. When Oprah endorsed Obama at the time, her endorsement was predicted to have given Obama over a million votes. Judge Judy was an equally popular show like Oprah Winfreyy’s show. It had millions of viewers and even won a Guinness World Record because of how long it was.
People just kept watching and Judge Judy got a whole new generation of viewers. People loved watching Judy and they even preferred her to real life judges because of how swift people got justice. Judy didn’t even end the show because it became unpopular, but because she wanted to move away from it and create a new one entirely.
However, in creating that show, people believe that Judy has exposed her true self. What is her true self? Judge Judy is known for her sharp tongue, witty oneliners, and stern rebukes to litigants. She has catchphrases like baloney and don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining, which are iconic. However, she has been accused of not always making these statements at the appropriate time or even treating litigants respectfully.
Imagine a woman with children struggling to repay a debt and Judge Judy made a statement like this. It would look like she didn’t care. Well, this happened multiple times. One day, a 20-year-old litigant who had four children and was married to her husband who cheated on her stepped into the court. She was depressed.
But instead of giving sympathy to this woman, Judge Judy said her depression was because of her circumstances and not because her husband was cheating on her. It might be true, but that wasn’t what the lady needed at the time. And Judge Judy’s critics used this opportunity to criticize her. They said that at that moment that woman needed sympathy and help, not more criticism.
However, that wasn’t the only example of Judy going overboard. In another event that her critics mentioned, Judge Judy described a defendant and her mother morons. Was Judy right to call people names in these circumstances? Justifying these situations? Fans of Judge Judy said her approach is because of her background as a family court judge in Manhattan.
They claim because of the kind of people she had dealt with, Judy had to be tough and that toughness worked. Her fans also said that many people lied about their situation to gain sympathy and being a human lie detector, Judge Judy sees through the lies, which make it seem like Judge Judy was insensitive. Besides, they found her harshness and witty comments entertaining.
Her critics believe Judy is overdoing it. They say when her show began, Judy wasn’t harsh to litigants. But as the show went on, she began to be and her critics believe they know why she got this way. They claim that Judy had become enormously wealthy and her wealth made her look down on people and be out of touch with litigants realities.
They even called the people who supported her sadistic. Are Judy’s fans really sadistic? One of Judy’s critics was another titan of courtroom show, Joseph Waftner. And let us digress a bit. Joseph was a judge on People’s Court. And way before Judge Judy began, Judy wanted to replace Joseph. When the People’s Court released him from his contract in May 1993, Judy was rejected, but she didn’t give up.
She loved the show so much that her second husband Jerry Schindlin later became an arbitrator on the people’s court from 1999 to 2001. However, when her mother and father died, Judy struggled. An immense feeling of loss enveloped her as the deaths of her parents haunted her. In trying to deal with the trauma from her loss, Judy’s relationship with her husband suffered and in 1990 the two divorced.
Although they remarried in 1991, the Love Birds just couldn’t let each other go. So, Judy has always been connected to courtroom shows for a larger part of her adult life, but it doesn’t seem like Joseph appreciated this. And so, he took a shot at Judy in 2002. Joseph claimed Judy doesn’t have the decorum of a judge, and her style was that of a person that lacked manners.
That must have stunned Judy, who has a reputation for tearing into litigance herself. But she didn’t take the bait. Instead, she replied that she wasn’t going to go into a fight with Joseph. Well, at first, that is. She then added that Joseph didn’t learn the lesson of keeping quiet if he didn’t have anything positive to say about someone.
Joseph didn’t like what Judy said, and he was furious. He was determined to have his vengeance. The battle line had been drawn between the two and people anticipated who the winner would be. Joseph didn’t want to lose the battle, so he went allin. He began to grant different interviews and called Judy all sorts of names. He called her arrogant and criticized her for demeaning people.
He even called her a disgrace to her profession as a judge. This came at a period people have been questioning if Judy was even qualified to be a judge. So, it cut deeper than anything. Joseph was determined to tear her down by saying Judge Judy was making Justice look cruel, cold, and showy. Judy wasn’t never going to let an attack of that magnitude go without answering.
So, she delivered a response so iconic that it is still being discussed in some quarters till this day. What did she say? Remember how Judge Judy’s fans say they find her style entertaining? Judy knew this. And when she wanted to have her revenge, she called Joseph boring and not likely to make it in the entertainment industry.
She suggested that Joseph didn’t have the brains and timing to make something entertaining since he doesn’t have a sense of humor. Judge Judy didn’t relax after this in 2013. During an interview with Larry King, Judy was asked what she thought of Joseph’s performance as a TV judge. Her response was soft but fiery.
She replied that Joseph was boring. Since then, Joseph stopped criticizing Judy publicly. Who do you think won their battle? This isn’t the first time Judge Judy would be winning battles. But there is one battle that is hanging around her head, refusing to go away. This situation has been so intense for her that she has decided to speak out and say what fans have been suspecting.
What happened and what did she say? We’ll get to that pretty soon. However, Judy is one tough judge. It might take months or years even, but Judy always gives everything to win. When she wanted to replace Joseph in People’s Court in 1993, she was called crazy. However, Judy didn’t give up. And when the opportunity arose in late 1993, she grabbed it.
After Josh Getlin, inspired by his wife Heidi, wrote about Judy as one of the toughest family court judges in the United States, Judy shot to fame and 60 Minutes came along. She performed so stunningly well that she got an offer to write a book. She accepted the offer and wrote one titled, “Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.
” Looks like she really loves using that expression. The book’s publisher, Harper Collins, told her the book title was bizarre and no one would read it. But Judy didn’t listen and published the book anyway, but it only ended up selling 216,79 copies. Judy won the battle, but lost the war.
Maybe she should have listened to her publisher, shouldn’t she? The next battle Judy fought was when she landed her own courtroom show, Judge Judy. After trying and failing to get on People’s Bench, something the show producers would not regret, by the way, two talent scouts, Kay Switzer and Sandy Spreman from the talent agency Rebel. Kay and Spreman had produced People’s Court before and were sure that Judy was the next big thing.
So, they pitched their idea of a new courtroom series to her. Judy liked it and got her show, but she didn’t want it to be named Judge Judy. She wanted it to be named Hot Bench. The producers didn’t accept and Judy just let it go. Or so they thought. Judy never forgot about this denial. So years after the rejection, Judy formed her own production company and did a spin-off of Judge Judy, which she named Hot Bench.
Like Judge Judy, the show was an immediate hit. However, in that success came more battles for Judge Judy to fight. Rebels sued her and CBS several times over royalties, but Judge Judy won. K. Switzer and Sandy Spreman also did the same, but Judy defeated them, too. But there is one thing that Judge Judy has not been able to completely defeat.
Due to her style, Judy has been accused of not being a real judge because no real judge would act like her. Joseph also made this accusation popular when he battled with Judy. And people haven’t stopped questioning Judy’s qualifications since then. Judge Judy has never faced disbarment before. She can’t even be disbarred because she isn’t actively practicing as a lawyer.
And because of that, she can’t be disbarred. A disbarment is even irrelevant in her role. But could still she be open to any form of disciplinary action? Judy passed her New York bar exam in 1965. She first served as a corporate lawyer. Then when she got bored of that, she became a prosecutor. Judy was so effective that she got promoted to serve as a Manhattan family court judge.
Right now, Judy is serving as an arbitrator and not as a sitting judge. As an arbitrator, her rulings are binding, but they are outside traditional judicial oversight. This prevents her from facing disciplinary actions like disbarment or formal inquiry as her decisions are not subject to the same ethical standards as an active judge.
So, as you may have suspected, Judy has the necessary training and isn’t in a position to get disbarred? Will the rumors of disbarment surrounding her eventually disappear? Imagine dealing with rumors that not only go into the soul of your work, but your very personality and existence. Judge Judy has tried her best to ignore rumors, but there was one that went too far and the judge just said no more and sued. We’ll get to that very soon.
But there is one thing that’s strange. Some people believe she deserves this because she is a bad person. Are they right? Is Judge Judy really a bad person? When many people think about Judge Judy, their minds turn to the stoic and charismatic Petri Hawkins Bird, who served as her baiff. Bird has always been a big fan of Judy, and he stands for most of the things she stands for.
For instance, they both don’t like President Donald Trump. One of the things Bird reportedly dislikes about Trump is because he believes Trump acts like he is above the law. Is he right? Does President Donald Trump act above the law? Bird has always been fascinated with law while growing up and it’s because of his environment.
Born in 1957, Bird grew up during the last era of the Jim Crow laws and the civil rights movement. He also had a thing for acting too, but his desire for law won. And after he graduated from Eastern District High School in Brooklyn and the Hostos Community College in the Bronx, he started work as a court officer.
At first, Bird worked in the Brooklyn circuit of the New York City court system in the early 1980s. Bird was still passionate about furthering his education. So, in 1986, he enrolled in the John J. College of Criminal Justice. Around the same time, he was moved to the family court division in Manhattan. This was the moment his life changed, but he didn’t know it at the time.
While working in the family court system, he met Judge Judy Shindling, who was the supervising family court judge for Manhattan. However, he didn’t work directly for her and worked for a couple of other judges on a rotational basis. Eventually, he got to work for her, too, and she made a great impression of her. Judge Judy was happy to have him in her court and he wasn’t bored anytime he was with her.
He liked her direct and blunt style, but he admitted that not everyone did. Should Judge Judy change her style, Bird also made a positive impression on Judge Judy, and when she wanted to choose a baiff for her show, she chose Bird. The duo had immense chemistry, even if Bird didn’t speak much. Bird only spoke when Judge Judy addressed him, and he was a master of looking uninterested and dropping lightigh-hearted comments.
Judy relied on Bird to do more than just call cases. He provided frequent advice when it came to looking up vehicle estimates so Judge Judy can award the accurate judgment amount. When litigants were losing control of their emotions and wanted to fight, Bird helped keep them in check. If any litigants were getting rude and weren’t listening to his boss, Bird shut them down hard.
He was always eager to throw out litigants who were acting inappropriately. The two acted like old couples and didn’t even need to talk to each other before knowing what the other needed to do. Now, imagine Bird’s shock when anytime someone important was about to happen, Judy sidelined him. After several years and despite dominating TV screens, Judge Judy didn’t win any Emmy awards.
Judy and Bird tried it to play it off like it didn’t matter, but it bothered them. Then eventually when they won, it was supposed to be a special moment for both Bird and Judge Judy, but she didn’t want to celebrate it with him. During the awards ceremony, Bird sat in a distant place from Judy. And when Judge Judy was announced as winner of their first Emmy award, Judy asked another person to present the award to her.
This immensely hurt Bird, but unfortunately Judy would hurt him some more. After about 25 seasons, Judge Judy ended, but apart from the show still being in syndication, Judy moved to a spin-off from Judge Judy, which she named Judy Justice. Fans were excited because this meant they would continue to see their favorite on-screen judge and her baiff, Bird.
However, in the first episode of the new show, fans didn’t see Bird and they immediately reacted. It turned out that Judy had kicked him out. She told him that she couldn’t afford Bird, which was absurd. Judy is stinkingly rich and could easily afford to pay him. Fans complained about what Judy did, even the ones who really loved her.
So, she had no choice than to rehire Bird, but put him in one of her other shows. Do you think Judy is a bad person due to the ways she treated Bird? Or does making amends and getting him on another show how much she values and respects him? Speaking of respect, when Accelerate 360 media didn’t show Judge Judy any, she sued them.
Accelerate 360 media through their subsidiaries National Inquirer and InTouch Weekly wrote an article about Judge Judy. They wrote that Judy was calling for the release of the Menendez brothers. Remember them? They were the two brothers who killed their parents and went on a buying spree in 1989. The brothers got sentenced to a life imprisonment and have been described to have been behaving well.
And because of that, Accelerate 360 Media claimed Judy wanted the brothers to be released on parole. Judy has denied this and has sued Accelerate 360 Media for the article. She said if they were ready to tell lies against her, they should be ready for what comes. Judy is not ready to let go and she revealed that there have been many ruthless attacks against her and this time she intends to fight it to the end.
Will she win this fight or will she lose it?