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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.
Contact:
Larry J. Richards, Attorney at Law
711 N. Washington St. #202
Grand Forks, N.D. 58203
Call: 701-795-5100
Fax: 701-746-9856
E-mail: larry.richards@lawyer.com