Circuit Court Judge F. Lee Russell in Shelbyville, Tenn., clearly does not get that whole “justice delayed is justice denied” thing. Russell has been reprimanded for “excessive delay” after he waited nearly 11 years to rule on a case.
Judge Russell took the case involving a complaint against Tennessee Farmers Mutual Insurance Co. under advisement in 1999 but the bar authorities charge that he did not rule in the case until shortly after he was told that he might be disciplined for the delay.
Here is the ruling: FLeeRussellPubReprimand
The ruling came 10 years and 11 months after the bench trial.
Jonathan Turley
I’d like to correct my posting above. USCourts statistical reports include cases filed.
c-2 is basis of jurisdiction and includes 530 “assault libel and slander” or an average of 5.6 per district court.
See
http://www.uscourts.gov/uscourts/FederalCourts/Publications/StrategicPlan2010.pdf
this plan calls for a concerted and collaborative effort among Judicial Conference committees, circuit judicial councils and others to make measurable progress in reducing the number of cases that are unduly delayed
next-generation case management systems
Decision Support System that integrates data from other agencies with probation and pretrial services data to facilitate the analysis and comparison of supervision practices and outcomes among districts.
Goal 1.1a: Reduce delay
I can see a lot of reasons to delay making a decision…but these motions were filed by Plaintiff’s counsel..asking for a decision…either the Judge did not like the Plaintiff, the case or the Plaintiff’s attorney….Maybe he did not like the case….maybe he did not want to rule in the defendant’s favor…there are too many unknowns…
But I agree that 11 years is way too long…did someone in the Judges office hide the file and requests? As pointed out this is Tennessee….
Kay,
The criminals now run our government at all levels–federal, state, and local. The problem isn’t the local drug dealer down the street, but the local cops and judges down the road.
From the government perverts sexually molesting innocent citizens in our airports, to the jack-boot gestapo thugs in the DHS (coming to a Walmart near you). From the war on Americans (drugs) to the thoroughly corrupt judicial system with all its many players and actors. And all the way up to and including our current lawless president and all the lawless presidents before him since Abraham Lincoln.
Leftists continue to insist the Constitution doesn’t mean anything specific (unless being specific can be used to clobber Christians). Then and only do they pretend that the Constitution has any rock-solid unchangeable meaning.
Otherwise it is a “living” document without certitude. If it means nothing precisely (i.e. because it is “living”) then it means anything and judges can rule with impunity because they become unaccountable gods. They pretend whatever they wish. They are absolute power. And absolute power corrupts and it murders.
It always has.
It is time to create an organization that is solely devoted to targeting judges for impeachment. I have in mind a sort of clearinghouse for the promotion of impeachment in America. A place where one can check out a judge’s record (conduct) and watch over him or her, and start the movement to impeach.
It should be a place that disseminates information on the steps needed to impeach judges and officials who have abused their power. It should be an organization (with a website) devoted to teaching Americans what impeachment is: simply the noncriminal extra-legal removal of officials for incompetence, moral corruption, or mental disability. It should skip over the heads of the legal establishment who are the source of the corruption. The people must push for impeachment. They must lobby for it.
Our fascist, government, high schools (all of them) have neglected to thoroughly teach about impeachment to American school children. This is because the fascist government doesn’t want their fascist schools to teach American children that they can, when they grow up, easily rid themselves of their evil judges and officials.
That would cramp their style. And they like those brown-shirts and shiny black boots as much as the TSA likes its snappy blue sexual molestation gloves.
Judges all over America have stood silent while this totalitarianism grows ever stronger by the minute. They pretend they are not citizens such that they should speak out against the rising tyranny. They feign a dignity, of which they surely do not possess in reality, to use as an excuse to not condemn the rise of the gestapo (DHS) and despotism in America. Better to feign decorum, stay satisfied with the status quo, than to step out and be controversially honorable.
They stand to profit handsomely from their silence, no doubt. Especially when thought crimes becomes the newest red meat of criminal activity in America to feed the hungry “justice” monster. They need the gestapo (DHS) and the Justice Department to make that a new source of revenue. There are only so many people you can arrest and convict for actual crimes anyway.
So now they must need to profit from invented ones.
Complaints Against Judges
The tables now include expanded categories for allegations and actions on complaints. 42/418
The most prevalent allegations were in the categories of erroneous decision, other misconduct, personal bias against the litigant or attorney, and delayed decision 45/418
I found on pages 67 – 69 a more detailed type of breakdown of cases than on the previous chart, which I had complained about.
There are over 600 copyright cases. over 600 labor cases. Over 1000 “other statutory actions”.
In 2009 there were only 25 “assault, libel, and slander cases, in 2008 there were 38. That’s in the entire federal court system. 68/418
For persons under pretrial services supervision, PSOs monitored compliance with the release conditions set by the courts, provided necessary support services (such as substance abuse treatment), and informed the courts and U.S. attorneys of all apparent violations of release conditions. In 2009, a total of 32,147 defendants were released with specified conditions such as pretrial services supervision or location monitoring. The release condition ordered most often was pretrial services supervision, which was imposed on 90 percent of defendants released, a reduction of 1 percent from the previous year. Substance abuse treatment and testing were ordered for more than 33 percent of the defendants, a rise of 2 percentage points from the year before. Defendants given substance abuse testing alone (without treatment)dropped from 19 percent last year to 17 percent this year.
Pretrial diversion is a period of supervision proposed by the U.S. attorney and agreed to by a defendant as an alternative …
For persons under pretrial services supervision, PSOs monitored compliance with the release conditions set by the courts, provided necessary support services (such as substance abuse treatment), and informed the courts and U.S. attorneys of all apparent violations of release conditions 41/418
In 2009, there were 408 civil cases per judgeship and most also did criminal, so there were a lot of assignments. Of the cases filed almost half were “all other cases”. That is not supposed to be good form design to have such a high misc. category. The other categories are “recovery and enforcement”. I don’t know what that is. “Personal Injury” and “Prisoner Petitions”.
see 22/418
“Judges not only conduct trials, but also perform many other case-related functions, including those related to courtroom activity, research and opinion drafting for motions for summary judgment and other dispositive motions, hearings on sentencing issues, Daubert hearings on expert witnesses, evidentiary hearings
in pro se prisoner and other cases, supervised release and probation revocation hearings, alternative dispute resolution activities, and settlements. This year, 46 districts operated mediation
and arbitration programs that involved more than 21,200 civil cases”
That’s page 27/418
Do you want to talk about this?
http://www.uscourts.gov/uscourts/Statistics/JudicialBusiness/2009/JudicialBusinespdfversion.pdf
How could the parties to the action allow this to go on for a decade? Wouldn’t they be able to have him removed for cause or to have the Tenn. Supreme Court disclipinary commission act earlier than over 10 years? Of course, the answer to my question may be that it is Tennessee.
So the delay was considered to be sanctionable even though it involved official conduct?
I’m interested in judicial sanctions involving official conduct.
He qualifies to work for The Department of Just Us doing war crimes cases..
Good points made by BIL and Otteray Scribe…
To have received only an official reprimand is outrageous and unconscionable, IMHO. Hopefully, we’ll learn “the rest of the story”, at some point, to use Paul Harvey’s turn of phrase…
Something isn’t right..
Is it possible to impeach an entire state’s legal crew?
OS,
lol Point taken.
SB
“I smell a potential bribery investigation if the rule of law is followed.“
BIL, do not forget this is Tennessee.
If you look at the Tennessee track record of judicial incompetence and malfeasance, the history is breathtaking. This is just the latest. Note the number of instances the Professor has written about. And those are only the ones that made headlines.
I smell a potential bribery investigation.