History Series / JudgeJudy

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Judge Judy is a master at this. Normally after someone testifies, she will ask one simple question and reduce the person to being speechless or start going into InsaneTrollLogic. One example is where the plaintiff was suing for damages to their car after the defendant damaged the car and for filing false CPS report. The defendant said that she only called after witnessing the plaintiff's smoking marijuana in front of their children, when Judge Judy asked why it took her over a month to call, she couldn't respond. It was in Judge Judy's opinion that [[DisproportionateRetribution the defendant called the day after the plaintiff started to be sued for the damages as payback]].

* TheUnfairSex: Averted. Judge Judy is impartial when it comes to genders. As she often says herself, "I am an ecumenical abuser." This particularly shines through in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpy8NMonHE0 cases]] involving two feuding parents in which the mother has taken some action to prevent the father from seeing the child. Judge Judy is always quick to let the mother know that, under the laws of every state in the Union, mothers have no more inherent rights to their children than fathers do: the child has two parents, who are regarded under the law as equals.

* ExcitedShowTitle: One typically needs to look at electronic program guides to see these, but most of the cases feature excited episode titles, such as: "Internet Romeo Smackdown?!", "One More Reason Not to Live Together!", and "Nine-Year-Old Vandal and Liar?!"

* EverythingIsRacist: Some litigants (usually defendants, but sometimes plaintiffs as well) claim the only reason they were arrested or cited by law enforcement for some wrongdoing they committed was that they were racially profiled (regardless of whether they were at fault in the incident at hand). Unless they have concrete evidence to back up their claims, Judge Judy won't hear it, because she can't consider a supposition that calls for the operation of someone's mind as evidence.

** One case involved a plaintiff who got a tattoo on her leg, resulting in a severe and painful infection. Judge Judy was about to reimburse the plaintiff for medication and for missed work, until the defendant produced a copy of a release the plaintiff had signed acknowledging she was aware of the risks involved and agreed not to hold the defendants liable for any complications resulting from the tattoo. After the plaintiff admitted to signing the release, Judge Judy dismissed her case.

Note that the legal disputes on the show were indeed real cases -- similar legal disputes could be found in a typical small claims court. But Sheindlin was not acting as a judge for these cases (though she was a real judge for many years, having passed the New York State bar exam in 1965 and serving for many years in family courts). The show was filmed on a set in Los Angeles, not in a courtroom. The guy in front of her was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petri_Hawkins-Byrd a former New York City Court Bailiff]], not a police officer. And the "public gallery" was filled by [[MoneyDearBoy paid extras]]. What was actually going on was Sheindlin acting in a legal role as an arbiter, a neutral third-party in a small claims legal dispute. Before the case made it to the show, it was agreed by both parties in the dispute that they would accept Sheindlin's decision as to what would happen going forward. Also, the settlement was paid by the show itself, though Sheindlin had the power to determine how much of the remainder (if any) goes to the litigants themselves. While this may sound like cheap justice, several litigants have found that an appearance on ''Judge Judy'' is enough to [[NeverLiveItDown ruin their reputations forever once word gets out about them]].

''Judge Judy'' came to an end in 2021 after the end of its 25th season, although CBS is continuing to syndicate reruns and ''Hot Bench'' is continuing with new episodes. The end came amid legal wrangling between Sheindlin and CBS over profits from the sale of her show's catalog to CBS. Sheindlin has moved on to a new show called ''Series/JudyJustice'', which premiered on November 1, 2021 on Amazon's [=IMDb=] TV streaming service. The new show follows a format similar to ''Judge Judy'' with a number of tweaks, including the addition of a law clerk (Sheindlin's own granddaughter, Sarah) and a stenographer, and the replacement of Byrd with a new bailiff, Kevin Rasco, who had been head of security on ''Judge Judy''.

* MirandaRights: In a very early episode, Judge Judy has said the rights to a defendant who was brought into court with handcuffs & police officers in her courtroom where the plaintiff was pressing criminal charges on the defendant that was base on the civil case. The plaintiff had said the defendant assaulted him and stole his money the night before the case began and was suing for a bad transaction and the money stolen. She told the defendant and his witness these rights before continuing with the case. She also told the plaintiff the same rights when he admitted that he made up the assault to the police as he was angry at the defendant for loosing him $2,400 on a bad transaction.

'''Erika Gebhardt:''' It's not my business, but she had the money to give me. She loaned---\\

* EmphasizeEverything: The OpeningNarration is clear about many things. Such as, "(''You'' are about to enter the ''courtroom'' of ''Judge Judith Sheindlin!'') (The ''people'' are ''real''. The ''cases'' are real. The ''rulings'' are ''final''! (This is ''her'' courtroom!) This is ''Judge Judy''!"

* YouAreTheNewTrend: Not the first court show, but its success opened the floodgates for dozens of new court shows, including a revival of the original courtroom reality show, ''The People's Court''. This includes several others produced by Big Ticket Television, including ''Judge Joe Brown'', the second season of ''Swift Justice'', and ''Series/HotBench'', which was created by Judge Judy herself.

''Judge Judy'' came to an end in 2021 after the end of its 25th season, although CBS is continuing to syndicate reruns and ''Hot Bench'' is continuing with new episodes. The end came amid legal wrangling between Sheindlin and CBS over profits from the sale of her show's catalog to CBS. Sheindlin has moved on to a new show called ''Series/JudyJustice'', which premiered on November 1, 2021 on Amazon's [=IMDb=] TV streaming service. The new show follows a format similar to ''Judge Judy'' with a number of tweaks, including the addition of a law clerk (Sheindlin's own granddaughter, Sarah) and a stenographer, and the replacement of Byrd with a new bailiff.

* ThinkOfTheChildren: Unlike the typical hysterical MoralGuardian example of this trope, Judge Judy is completely in earnest regarding this, especially when dealing with two parents squaring off against each other before him. She will remind them that although they may not like each other anymore, the children they created are the innocent parties, and their first priority should be to the children.

* BecauseISaidSo: Judge Judy invokes this in shutting up some defendants who question her decisions, usually if she's already explained her decision to them but they still don't understand.

*** A case in 2018 in which the plaintiff had brought a house and put his girlfriend on the deed. When they broke up, she refused to sign over her half of the house. When he went to court, the defendant kept talking over him and going into InsaneTrollLogic over how he would burn her alive and tie her up in a secret basement under the house and kept talking to the plaintiff. Judge Judy had enough and ejected her from court while dismissing her claim. She also had to dismissed the plaintiff's claim as she didn't have the authority to force the defendant to sign over the deed.
*** One case involved a dog rescue group which the plaintiff was a fostering the dog and was promised $50 a week to care for the dog. After two months the group (the defendants) had another person who wanted the foster the dog, but for free, so they offered the plaintiff to buy the dog and wave the adoption fee of $350. When the group sent over the adoption agreement, the plaintiff wanted to take the agreement to her cousin who was an attorney but waited 2 months, then didn't sign the agreement and sued the rescue group for $700 for the money she thought she was owed while the the defendants waited for the signed agreement. When Judge Judy told her she wasn't going to get the money and told her to sign the agreement or give up the dog, she quickly walked out of court and left the dog without saying a word.

** Some cases are cut short because the plaintiff and/or defendant walk out of the court (on their own or Judge Judy throws them out). Typically, the person left wins by default for what they were asking (and their adversary's claim is dismissed) unless the trial got far enough along before the person left that Judge Judy can rule on it:

*** In another memorable case, a plaintiff sued her former husband for a loan. During her questioning, Judge Judy found out that the plaintiff was a deadbeat mom who had not paid child support in years, and chewed her out for it, telling her that if she were a good mother, she'd let the loan go instead of demanding repayment. At this point, the plaintiff cursed under her breath and stormed out of the courtroom through the side door, slamming it loudly. Judge Judy calmly announced that the plaintiff's case was dismissed.