She irritates me how she interrupts people. At the beginning, she'll ask the litigants "Ok folks, what's going on?" The plaintiff will begin "Me and X got into...", then JM will interrupt "how long have you known each other?" Plaintiff will answer. JM: "ok, go on." "So, we were...", JM: "where were you?" Then she seems to get irritated when they stutter or hesitate. Maybe it would just be better for her to ask her basic questions first. Does this bother anyone else, or is it just me?
Geez, it's probably not good that I discovered this board after years of watching "The People's Court" as a "guilty pleasure". I can't resist chiming in when I see someone expressing one of my many pet peeves, and I have a huge backlog. ๐
I actually do like a lot of things about Judge Milian, and enjoy her good work and many of her asides and ad-libbed commentary-- as opposed to all the tired sermons and lectures.)
For instance, not too long ago she was inspecting someone's phone in the middle of a case when the litigant's 16 year old grandson called, and Milian decided on the spot to answer the call. It was really cute and funny.
But you are so right, she's a lousy interviewer! Anyone who's been trained as an interviewer, especially in a "tryer of fact" role like a judge or arbitrator, should know to avoid things like interrupting answers, asking multiple questions instead of one question/answer at a time, etc.
In the real world, this is important because court proceedings are all about creating a clear record of the testimony; interruptions and multiple questions disrupt the flow and muddy the record.
Of course there are exceptions, and sometimes in adversarial proceedings the questioner turns up the heat on purpose to rattle an evasive or suspicious litigant.
But, like all of the TV court-show judges, she's a hot dog. So she thinks out loud, and often runs roughshod over the litigants.
I can't tell you how many times I've snarled at the screen, "If you just shut up for a second, and stop thinking of more questions, maybe you'll be able to hear the answers to the twelve questions you just fired at the poor litigant!"
Geez, it's probably not good that I discovered this board after years of watching "The People's Court" as a "guilty pleasure". I can't resist chiming in when I see someone expressing one of my many pet peeves.....
LB55, I remember that case too! It was cute and funny. Nothing Judge Judy would do! Sidenote: I've often wondered why people don't turn off their phones. At the least, production would remind them to silence their phones.
And I, too, have yelled at her to be quiet and let them answer. Overall, I like her.
I absolutely love her, but I hate it when she interrupts. Especially when they then interrupt back and she shuts them down for it. It's only of the only things about her that bugs me.
But it reminds me of the period many, many moons ago when I was promoted to the position of regional "specialist" at a state agency. Part of my job involved helping field office staff when they called with problems or questions.
I was a more or less pleasant and capable rookie. A senior specialist-- call him Joe-- who usually worked the phones with me was an older guy who was approaching burnout.
He was bored and increasingly crabby. Although he was civil to me and others in our regional office, he took his frustration out on the callers.
On days when he really wasn't into it, which was most of them, he would bark or grumble a lot, and give really quick & dirty answers that even I knew were wrong or made up just to get rid of the call.
Anyway, before long callers would frequently confide that they were so glad they got me instead of Joe.
I was flattered by this at first. But then I realized that Joe was such a miserable cuss that being, er, "way better" than Joe wasn't saying much. In fact, it was almost like damning with faint praise. ๐