Judges should receive anti-bias training, ABA House says

Judges should receive anti-bias training, ABA House says

ABA Journal Online Daily News
By Lee Rawles
Posted August 15, 2017, 11:52 am CDT

The issue of implicit bias has been a hot topic for the legal community, and combating it has previously been the subject of ABA efforts. New ABA President Hilarie Bass, who began her term at the close of the 2017 ABA Annual Meeting Tuesday, even created a task force to address the issue during her time as head of the Section of Litigation.

On Monday, the ABA House of Delegates approved a resolution calling for anti-bias training to be provided specifically for judges.

The Young Lawyers Division, Judicial Division and Section of Litigation introduced Resolution 121 to urge all courts to provide judicial training and continuing education on implicit bias. It also asks that state and local bar associations "work with courts to offer de-biasing training to judicial officers free of cost and at the convenience of the courts."

Lauren Marsicano with the Young Lawyers Division spoke in favor of the resolution. She recalled being told in law school that even what a judge ate before they ruled on a case could influence their decision. "I hope that they had a great breakfast, now that I’m practicing," she quipped, to laughter from the delegates.

She recalled a quote by Judge Bernice Bouie Donald of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: "All judges view the function of their job through the lens of their experiences."

Marsicano said with additional bias training, she hoped that the worst thing future litigants would have to worry about influencing judges was what they had to eat that day.

The resolution passed with no one speaking in opposition and no audible "no" votes.

Follow along with our full coverage of the 2017 ABA Annual Meeting. Read online

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My comment as nonlawyer:

"...quote by Judge Bernice Bouie Donald of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: "All judges view the function of their job through the lens of their experiences.""

Yes, and Lawyer-Judges are the problem, not what a judge "had to eat that day".

The Lawyer-Judge Bias in the American Legal System is a book by Professor Benjamin H. Barton, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. From Cambridge University Press:

"Virtually all American judges are former lawyers. This book argues that these lawyer-judges instinctively favor the legal profession in their decisions and that this bias has far-reaching and deleterious effects on American law. There are many reasons for this bias, some obvious and some subtle. Fundamentally, it occurs because - regardless of political affiliation, race, or gender - every American judge shares a single characteristic: a career as a lawyer. This shared background results in the lawyer-judge bias. The book begins with a theoretical explanation of why judges naturally favor the interests of the legal profession and follows with case law examples from diverse areas, including legal ethics, criminal procedure, constitutional law, torts, evidence, and the business of law. The book closes with a case study of the Enron fiasco, an argument that the lawyer-judge bias has contributed to the overweening complexity of American law, and suggests some possible solutions."

http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=110761614X

Also on YouTube, PJTV: Bias! The Case Against Lawyers and Judges, interview by Glenn Reynolds with Professor Benjamin H. Barton

https://youtu.be/Hbs_3lePAjE

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Go to law school to be a lawyer.
Go to judge school to be a judge.
Go to prosecutor school to be a prosecutor.