Flutterby™! : Making Decisions

Iowa judge admits hundreds of his rulings were ghost-written by attorneys, raising a host of ethical and fairness concerns:

While it’s not unusual for judges to ask attorneys to submit proposed decisions for their consideration, those requests are made in the open, and the attorneys’ work is labeled a "proposed decision" and made part of the public court file, separate from the judge's ruling.

But Jacobson, who retired from the bench in October at age 69, admitted in a deposition last fall that he sometimes privately requested that attorneys for the winning side write up the decision and then email it to him rather than file it with the clerk of courts as a "proposed decision."