Judge Files Ghostwritten Decree

You find plagiarism in the strangest places. From the American Bar Association Journal:

A district judge in Iowa has vacated a couple’s divorce decree because it was ghostwritten by a lawyer without the knowledge of opposing counsel.

District Judge Jeffrey Neary said Thursday that the marriage of Troy and Audra Presuhn is still dissolved but other aspects of their divorce are vacated, the Sioux City Journal reports.

A review of Jacobson’s decisions released in June had found he failed to notify opposing parties in at least 13 cases that he was using proposed rulings written by lawyers. Most of the rulings were in family law cases. Jacobson retired last fall.

In the Presuhn case, Jacobson had called a lawyer for Audra Presuhn in June 2016 and asked her to write a final decree that mostly favored her client. He filed the document as a final decision after correcting one typographical error.

You can read more here.

(ljs)