Guest Author - Robin Rounds Whittemore

If there was a law that stated that a non-custodial parent would be court-ordered to have $400 a month come out of their checking account for their one child, you probably wouldn’t have any problem agreeing that this would be fair, right? What if the person had 7 children? Would it be hard for you to rule on that?

Let’s say the law in a certain area is such that if a man and woman divorce, they split half of their assets equally. A man and woman get ready to divorce, and you find that a month before, one of the spouses had received $250,000.00 from their mother's will. It had been put in the bank account that they both shared. Would this be a hard decision for you to make?

Take the cases that have come up in regards to adoption. If a parent gives up their legal right to a child and that child gets adopted; who gets custody if the parent wants the child back? In some places, the law would say the child belongs with the biological parent. Would you be able to do the right thing without letting emotion guide you?

Another scenario comes to mind. Let’s say a police officer was called to a store to arrest three shoplifters that had been detained by store security.
1) A teenager who shoplifted to become part of an exclusive club?
2) An adult who makes a habit of shoplifting?
3) An elderly person whose money ran out before the end of the month, and was hungry?

The first two, you probably wouldn’t have a problem with. Now, let your eyes rest upon a hungry elderly person. Would you be tempted to buy their groceries? It would be understandable, but they are all guilty, and should be punished according to the law in that particular part of the country.

There are times when people who are sworn to uphold the law have a very difficult decision to make. Sometimes the right thing to do is the hardest thing to do. Emotional values have to be ignored when it comes to upholding the law.

Judges handle cases from traffic violations, to divorce, to will probates, etc. They handle cases concerning famous people, and just regular citizens. They need to pay close attention to detail and make sure that each case is fair and impartial to all parties involved.

When a case goes to jury, the judge has to instruct the members of the jury on what the law is in regard to the case that is being decided. If there is no jury in certain cases, then the judge is the party that makes the decision.

This is just a very small peek into the work of a judge. Could you be the judge if any of these cases came before you in trial? Would you be able to apply the law from the books, and not the emotions?