When Does A Los Angeles Criminal Judge Have To Recuse Himself From A Case?
There's a lot of times where judges decide that they cannot be fair and impartial on a case. It could be because they know a defendant in a case. It could be because they know an attorney in the case, whether it be a defense attorney or a prosecutor.
It could be because the subject matter hits too close to home. Another issue I'm seeing come up more and more is that judges are married to other court personnel—for example, a judge could be married to a prosecutor, and then they have to put a disclosure out for all the defendants to sign.
If a defendant doesn't sign it, they'll have to recuse themselves from the case, and they do not have to have that judge on the case if they don't feel the judge can be fair and impartial.
That's the issue. A judge has to recuse himself if they don't think they can be fair in the case. We want fairness. We want defendants to get a fair trial, have fair judges and prosecutors, and not have any bias against a particular defendant. So that's what a judge will look at when they decide whether they should recuse themselves from a case.
I've seen it happen once in a while: some issues come up in a case, and for whatever reason, the judge becomes angry at the defendant—maybe the defendant doesn't show up to court multiple times.
Judge Becoming Angry at Defendant
Maybe the defendant has some sort of outburst in court while the judge is trying to conduct his or her business. That could lead to a recusal because the judge could become angry and start to have bad feelings toward the defendant just because they don't like them or because of the way they've handled themselves in court.
So, there are various reasons that a judge can recuse themselves. Sometimes, the judge does it on their own. They say you know what, I'm going to recuse myself. Another judge would be better suited to handle this case.
Other times, a defense attorney might bring it up and say, Your Honor, we think you should recuse yourself. Here's why – state the cause – then the judge must decide.
I don't see it a lot, to be honest with you. Judges do not want to appear impropriety, so they won't recuse themselves from a case. There typically has to be a darn good reason for them to recuse themselves.
You may be reading this and saying, what does it mean when a judge recuses himself? It means they say I'm not handling this case.
I will assign this case to another judge, or I will send this to the presiding judge in charge of the courthouse and say, look, I can't deal with this case. Then, the presiding judge can go through the process of assigning it to another judge.
So, when you start thinking about recusal, many people get mad and don't like a judge. Just because you don't like the judge doesn't mean he's going to recuse himself.
Just because a judge may be a hanging judge in that particular courthouse in Los Angeles, that's another reason you don't get to recuse him. Getting in front of judges sometimes is just pure luck or bad luck.
The court system is supposed to be set up so that judges are mostly assigned by lot, and nobody should be able to manipulate which judge gets which case.
If we saw that happening, that might be another reason for a judge to recuse himself or to complain to the powers that be in that particular courthouse that this judge should not be on the case. It wasn't done fairly.
Prosecutors don't get to pick the judge they like. It should be done in a fair, impartial manner, and that's what we're looking for when we're dealing with a criminal case—fairness.
Someone who is going to listen to all the evidence. Somebody who is going to keep an open mind. Somebody who will make rulings based on the law, not with a personal bias toward a particular defendant.
So, if you see a judge doing something wrong or circumstances where a judge should recuse himself, you should tell your attorney. If your attorney is not on it, you better get another attorney.
Get somebody who is going to fight for you and get somebody who is going to make sure that justice is done about your criminal case in Los Angeles.
