THE ROBING ROOM

In a competent court, the judge doesn't matter. All that matters are the law and the facts. In an incompetent court, no matter how strong your case is, you never know if you're going to win because the judge can get it wrong. Smith's court is the most incompetent I've ever been in. She rarely gets the law right or understands the facts. What's worst, though, is that she's more mean than she is incompetent. To truly know how horrible this woman is, you must talk to the courthouse employees. It would be one thing if she was merely a judge, with power only over those in her courtroom. But she is chief judge of Norfolk, with power over the entire courthouse. Every employee in that courthouse -- clerks, secretaries, marshals, security officers, etc -- live in complete terror of her. She ridicules, demeans, and beats up attorneys, but at least we are in and then out. The courthouse employees must live under her reign of terror every minute of their working lives. She makes their lives miserable.