Bay Area Court Reform Protests Target Santa Clara County

Bay Area court reform advocates this week conducted a protest outside the Santa Clara County Family Justice Center Courthouse on North First Street in San Jose. The group asserts that several judges who hear family law and divorce court cases in Silicon Valley convey gender bias against women, and that virtually all judges give preferential treatment to lawyers and their paying clients, while treating self-represented court users who can't afford counsel as second-class citizens.

Socioeconomic bias is a persistent problem in California courts, according to Golden Gate University School of Law Professor Michele Benedetto Neitz, who specializes in judicial ethics, poverty law, and public interest law. Santa Clara County Superior Court whistleblowers assert that the recent scandal involving sexual harassment and discrimination against women by Justice Conrad Rushing of the Sixth District Court of Appeal in San Jose is the proverbial tip of the iceberg within Silicon Valley courts.

"We have entitled, white, male trial court judges who treat women like the over-the-top misogynistic male characters in Mad Men," said one attorney watching the protest who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they could be subject to retaliation for speaking out. "That this is a real problem in Silicon Valley in 2018 is baffling," the lawyer said.

Santa Clara County Presiding Judge Patricia Lucas and court administrators deny that judges are biased against women and the poor, and that they provide preferential treatment to lawyers.

The protesters are part of a Northern California network of watchdogs and court reform advocates, and additional demonstrations in Santa Clara and other counties are planned. The quasi-anonymous group asks that anyone interested in participating contact them at familycourtcoalition@gmail.com.