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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Attorney Suspended for Hostility Toward Judges

(CN) - The Missouri Supreme Court suspended attorney James T. Madison for six months after he argued continually with a Jackson County circuit judge and sent multiple angry letters to a judge in a separate case. On appeal, Madison stood by his statements, in which he called one judge a member of an "evil network" and said the other had "stained her robes" with her decisions.

Madison took exception to the absence of a judge from a personal injury case he was working on in 2005. He wrote her three letters demanding an explanation for her failure to appear or explain her absence.

The judge said she feared the letters would never stop, and said she worried about her and her family's safety because of Madison's past conviction for felony aggravated assault.

The other case was a landlord-tenant action from 2005. Madison's client lost and was ordered to pay $350. Madison repeatedly said "no basis in law" until the judge ordered him to "get out of this courtroom."

Later that day, Madison wrote the judge a letter accusing him of a "ruthless abuse of power and contempt for the rule of law."

Despite Madison's claims that his opinions of the judges are well-founded, the court suspended him.

"If he believes an ethical violation occurred," the court ruled, "he is required to file a complaint with the Commission on Retirement, Removal, and Discipline. Mr. Madison never filed such a complaint against either judge."

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