Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Michigan

judge's disqualification

I went to a settlement conference before setting a trial date and the Judge made a few statements that I found to be very bias and damaging to my case, With the plaintiff--name removed--attorney in the same room, He said,� IF YOU GO TO COURT, YOU WILL LOSE� just because I didn't have a lawyer. I was shocked and just plain devastated! I thought, how could he just blatantly throw the whole case into their hands like that? He had not even consider or reviewed my side of the case yet? Before the Judges remarks were made in this conference I had an offer of 125, 00.00. To settle the case, After this Judges bias remarks the offer went down to 0. He even talked as if I wasn�t even there! He asked the Plaintiffs attorney how much time she thought SHE would need for the case to be tried and she told him a half a day, He said to her �Ha, I give it an hour!�Is this grounds for a complaint?


Asked on 12/31/07, 10:24 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Francois Nabwangu Wright Cantrell PLLC

Re: judge's disqualification

The ethics opinions are all over the map concerning judge's conduct in settlement proceedings. The answer is it depends, on whether there is a jury for example. Whether the judge offered to "make a record..." You need to hire an attorney the judge may just be trying to send you a message.

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Answered on 1/02/08, 8:15 pm


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