The Men and Women in Black

As an attorney, it would be impossible to determine how many court appearances I have made.  The number certainly runs well into the thousands.  Why so many?  When I worked as a contract public defender, I appeared in court almost daily for weeks on end, many times with multiple hearings in a day.  Even today, I appear regularly in Court about two or three times a week.

While determining the number of court appearances may not be possible, I do have the power to recall who (i.e. which judges) I have appeared before.  By appearances, I don't mean "on paper"--which are motions, ect. sent to the judge who reviews them in chambers without anyone physically appearing before him--I have sent those all over the State and have no way of determining that.  However, my power of recollection can tell you if I appeared before a particular judge or not.  Obviously, the vast majority of appearances happened in Grand Forks County, but certainly not all.  Here are the numbers as of the date of this post:

U.S. Ct. of Appeals--3 Judges

U.S. Federal Judges (incl. Full, Magistrate, Bankruptcy)---6 Judges

N.D. Supreme Court--7 Justices

State District Court (incl. Full-time and Surrogates)---23 Judges

State Judicial Referees/Magistrates--5

Here is a question--Which Judge have you appeared the most in front of?

Like the number of court appearances, it is impossible to say with absolute certainty.  However, I am about 90% certain that the honor belongs to now-retired Judge Joel D. Medd.  For whatever reason, I always ended up in the man's courtroom.  Call it luck or a curse.  Even when he was acting as a Surrogate Judge, I always ended up in front of him.  However, it has been over 18 months since I last appeared before Judge Medd, but we have judicial vacancy coming up----so I might be seeing him again.  Congrats on the "honor", your Honor.