[Les Quam]

The fact that the defendant is a probate judge is meaningless. He will have to hire an attorney the same as anyone else. The attorney who is hired by the judge will make the final decisions on how the case should be handled. Few if any attorney's will allow the client even a client who is an attorney to determine how to litigate the case.

In this particular case the client being a probate judge will have a legal background that will save the attorney time in explaining the law to his client. Lawyers do not give other lawyers a discount. In fact lawyers hate having other lawyers for a client. A Michigan state probate judge probably makes no more than 150K a year from that job. This judge may have other financial assets based on the money he had in the car (225K) and the house assuming it's his that the car is sitting in front of? If not he is no different in terms of financial resources from any other defendant earning 150K a year. Most lawyers who take the bench as a judge take a pay cut when they leave their practice.

The Federal judge in Arizona and an Arizona jury will give this judge's testimony no more weight than any other witness.

However believe it or not the judge may be indemnified by his homeowners insurance policy which in most cases indemnifies a homeowner even when he is sued in a case like this. I know mine does. I also carry an umbrella policy with my homeowners insurer for another 200 dollars a year which insures me for 1 million dollars in the event I am sued for anything. The first call this judge probably made was to his insurance company to see if they will represent him at no cost, and I think they will. If that doesn't pan out he would probably start calling friends and favors in order to get someone he trusts from Michigan to help him out. His least attractive option is to call an Arizona attorney he doesn't know and drop a retainer on him to defend this suit.

From a public relations standpoint I think BJ had no choice but to file suit to make some attempt to stop the bad press and fallout from the January auctions. Rather than file against a little guy with no resources where it appears to be a David V. Goliath, filing against a lawyer one of the professions with the worst reputations , who the general public hates and who also happens to be a judge is in my view a shrewd move. More importantly if BJ is successful against this judge who in the future will be tempted to take on BJ? If BJ can beat a judge at his own game who will be tempted to speak out against BJ or publiclly complain in the future? Not many is my opinion?

Finally if the consignment contract the judge signed does not ensure him of three minutes on the block I don't see how he files a counterclaim. Which is probably why he hasn't filed suit since January. He could have immediately filed in a Michigan federal court and had BJ come to Michigan to answer and had BJ try to change venue to Arizona. He elected not to file suit even though he thinks he was cheated or wronged out of 700K. Which tells me he decided he had little chance of being successful.

If the judge's insurance company picks up his defense he is OK? If not? It is a tough road for him I think?