6th District Justice Conrad Rushing Issues Sham Order for Divorce Lawyer Garrett Dailey: Indigent Pro Per Denied Right To Appeal

Justice Conrad Rushing

In an unsettling example of judge and attorney misconduct, indigent, self-represented Santa Clara County family court victim Catherine Raffa attempted to appeal a trial court order declaring her a vexatious litigant. Raffa successfully filed the appeal, # H043207, in the 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose.

Earlier this year, the opposing attorney, veteran family law lawyer Garrett Dailey, filed a motion to dismiss the appeal because, he claimed, Raffa was a vexatious litigant and required to get permission "from the presiding justice permitting the appeal to proceed."

But a litigant appealing a vexatious litigant order issued by a trial court doesn't need permission to appeal the order. If they lose the appeal, thereafter they need permission from a presiding judge to file anything in any court. They don't need permission to appeal the initial VL order, according to both case law and statutory law, CCP § 904.1(a)(6).

Institutionalized Socioeconomic Bias Revealed in Traffic Courts Scandal: Judges Still Unaccountable for Systemic Code of Judicial Ethics Violations

Statewide traffic courts scandal news reports expose institutionalized socioeconomic bias against the poor by California courts and judges. Over two years later, no disciplinary action taken against a single judge by the California Commission on Judicial Performance.  

Santa Clara County Judge Mary Ann Grilli Controversy: Socioeconomic, Pro Per Bias Alleged by Family Court Whistleblowers

Santa Clara County Superior Court whistleblowers allege that many wealthy judges convey explicit socioeconomic and pro per bias against indigent, disabled and financially disadvantaged litigants. 

A Santa Clara County government whistleblower has leaked the Statement of Economic Interests financial disclosure data for controversial family law Judge Mary Ann Grilli. The records reveal that Grilli enjoys a net worth substantially above seven figures. The 30-page document, embedded at the end of this article, shows a well diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, as well as an IRA and a revocable trust. 

Indigent, disabled and financially disadvantaged "pro per" litigants who can't afford counsel report that Grilli routinely exhibits socioeconomic and pro per bias, and favoritism towards lawyers. Court dockets and records from cases reviewed by the Family Court Accountability Coalition indicate that Grilli also often disregards "level-playing field" laws that mandate both parties in a divorce be represented by counsel where community property and assets are sufficient.

California Supreme Court Corruption: Whistleblowers Charge Supreme Court Justices with Enabling Bias Against the Poor in Family Courts

California Supreme Court Justices Tani Cantil-Sakauye, Ming Chin, Leondra Kruger, Carol Corrigan, Goodwin Liu, Mariano Cuellar and Kathryn Werdegar are accused of enabling family court bias against financially disadvantaged and disabled "pro per" litigants who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.

Institutionalized Socioeconomic Bias 

California Supreme Court judges are ignoring and thereby enabling systemic bias against the poor in family courts throughout the state, Judicial Branch reform advocates have charged.  

Earlier this year, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and the state Judicial Council were engulfed in a nationwide firestorm of controversy when a report released by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area revealed that traffic courts throughout the state were trapping the poor in long cycles of poverty using fines, fees and driver license revocations. 

Family court whistleblowers have catalogued examples showing that similar, institutionalized socioeconomic bias occurs in family courts, where more than 70 percent of court users cannot afford to hire an attorney. "This is a statewide epidemic of the same scale as the traffic courts scandal," said Ulf Carlsson, a whistleblower and former state employee. "Like they did in that debacle, the Supreme Court is playing deaf, dumb and blind to the problems." 

Sacramento Family Court News, an online, nonprofit journalism organization recently published an investigative report compiling court scandals attributed to Judicial Council Chair Tani Cantil-Sakauye. To view the report, click here. Other sources of news and information about socioeconomic bias in state courts include the California Supreme Court & Judicial Branch Report Tumblr, and the Judicial Misconduct Facebook Community.