Patricia Dunmore

I know of a situation where I was not the judge where a lady was sued to pay the remaining balance on the car, but the man she owed it to was deceased. She owed two more notes.

The judge ruled for the man suing her, but because it was the son of the man who owned the car, it was a matter that should have been in chancery court.

It wasn’t the right jurisdiction.

A judge has to know that kind of thing.

The judge knows the law. You don’t have the time to go and research and write a brief, you hear the case and they are waiting for an answer, so you have to know the law.

Then you have to treat people that come into the courtroom with respect.

You can ask anybody who has been in my court.

They can tell you two things.

I have great knowledge of the law and I respect everybody who comes in.

If they act ugly, I will put them in jail and charge them with contempt of court, because the judge, he or she has to command control of the courtroom.

And you are going to have to exercise that control if you are going to have children and parents who don’t necessarily want to follow the rules and you rule and find their little sweetheart guilty, they are mad at you.

I have a passion for people, and I always have, and I can’t help but take the sum of my experiences with me.

It is part of my being to love children, and I have worked with children’s programs in churches for years. I love children.

A lot of cases don’t come with juries, so you (as judge) have to make the hard decisions, and you have to come to know when people are telling the truth.

(As judge), you are in the hot seat, so you have to do what you have to do.