Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Consider an attorney who volunteers as judge pro tem in the same county and department where a case to which she or he is a party is being tried/heard. A judge is permitted to examine case folders in private. What restricts judges pro tempore to the files of cases to which they have been assigned? What prevents tampering with the opponent's pleadings, exhibits, and proofs of service?
2 Answers from Attorneys
A judge pro tem only gets the files for the cases they are assigned. They don't get free run of the file rooms. They would never be assigned a case in which they are an attorney or party, or their partners or firm is an attorney or party. On top of that there's the whole, go to jail and lose your license to practice law forever issue, too. It would have to be pretty high stakes to risk that on something that could so easily be detected.
I agree with Mr. McCormick. In addition, Government Code sections 6200 and 6201 make it against the law for any individual to remove, alter, or destroy court files.
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