What percent of judges have taken bribes?

Answer 1

I generally agree with Rick above, but not fully this time.

I think a lot of bribery can happen at the lowest level courts, rather than the higher levels.

Lower level judges have A LOT of discretionary powers in their rulings. A lot of things that the judges rule on can then only be over-ruled if they abused their discretion. That is a hard threshold because the appellate courts may disagree with the trial court but won't reverse the case unless there is clear evidence of that abuse.

Second, judges know that some cases are never going to end up in appeal (traffic court, divorce matters, etc.) because the party cannot afford it financially or for some other reason. Appeals are expensive and time-consuming. Appellate lawyers are NOT cheap.

This give some municipal judges, trial judges some great power.

Lastly, there is not a lot of oversight of judicial practice that is designed to catch this kind of stuff. Every now and then one does get caught...but it is tough.

I think the overwhelming majority of judges are honest practitioners, but no profession is without blemishes and there are some that mean to be honest that can be swayed by temptation. I would not disagree with a less than 1% number, but even that is TOO high if you are the victim of this bribery.

Keep in mind, that most people thing that lawyers are pretty sleazy. Prosecutors can be (Nifong) as well as defense attorneys (F. Lee Bailey). Judges mostly come from this hiring pool. You can't screen out all the bad ones.

Answer 2

Very few.

Contrary to the movies, there's not really a whole lot you can bribe a judge to do, except at the very highest levels. In lower courts, the judge is simply applying existing law. If he makes a decision that runs counter to the law, he's going to be reversed on appeal anyway.

Richard

Answer 3

Those who have been actually caught would probably be less than 1%.

EDIT on additional answers - I would say that you get the most bang for your buck bribing the lower courts and that would be the most likely place for it to occur. If a criminal defendant bribes a judge to hand him a dismissal, there a thousand and one ways to do that and the state cannot appeal.

But again, bribery is rare at all levels.

Answer 4

I think this number must be very low. Every judge I have met cares about justice. Lawyers and judges in general get a bad rap. Most members of the profession have very high ethical standards.

Answer 5

Figure that most professions have about the same percentage of honest and dishonest people, and judge based on that.

Answer 6

less than 5%