Not too long ago we all probably read one of our posters mentioning that Justice Hull was elevated to the appellate court so fast that his coffee didn’t have time to cool.
Sonofagun if that poster wasn’t right on.
On the face of things without knowing Justice Hull, one would think he is a bazillion years old and still uses chisel and stone tablets or tribal drums to communicate because we can tell he doesn’t appreciate the modern conveniences of email.
So exactly who is this character that insists that people “send me a letter over your signature setting forth the information you are asking for”so that he has an accurate record of the request and then “I can then consider a response to your inquiries.”
Surely this writing is from a source so anal that they squeak when they walk. The problem with elevating persons from the superior court to the appellate court so fast is that they don’t develop any appreciation for the plight of common men and women. They’re the elite chosen ones that have not had the time to season and mature. So it was no surprise to learn that not only is Harry Hull is just a little older than this authors age, Harry Hull has set forth meticulous diversionary tactics to thwart the release of public information by anyone other than approved sources, like those in the media that play nicely with the AOC and report only what the AOC desires reported.
You see, not only does Mr. Hull require your request in writing to be snail mailed to him over your signature , he has no intent of acknowledging the mailed correspondence, insisting that he did not receive your snail-mailed request the first time. Of course because he is a justice, you are supposed to take his word that your correspondence never arrived. Unlike those people at the AOC where you can escalate matters to the council, there is not many people to complain to when a council member and an appellate justice feigns ignorance.
Maybe it is time the legislature revisit sunshine laws as real laws with teeth and consequences, not nebulous rules of court that go unenforced for the elite at the AOC and on the Judicial Council.
Meet Harry Hull.
______________________________________________________________________
Harry Hull, Associate Justice
Justice Hull is a member of the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District in Sacramento
ADMITTED TO THE BAR: Illinois, 1972; California, 1976, United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, 1976; Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 1977.
EDUCATION: Juris Doctor, University of Illinois College of Law, 1972; Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, University of Illinois, 1969.
PROFESSIONAL HISTORY: Captain, United States Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps, 1972-1976, circuit prosecutor, 1974-1976 prosecuting criminal cases including murder, sexual assaults and narcotics offenses; Assistant United States Attorney, Eastern District of California, Criminal Division, Sacramento, California prosecuting federal criminal cases including bank fraud and embezzlement, currency violations, narcotics sales and importations, bank robberies and firearms violations, 1976-1979; Sole general practice, 1979; McDonough, Holland & Allen, Sacramento, California associate and partner, 1979-1995, general civil litigation practice in business, real estate, redevelopment, public law, health care law, and toxics and hazardous waste matters.
JUDICIAL HISTORY: Judge, Sacramento County Superior Court, appointed 1995, elected March, 1996, (Superior Court Appellate Panel, Grand Jury Advisor); Associate Justice, Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, nominated December, 1997; confirmed, February, 1998; retained for term provided by law, November, 1998.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES/ASSOCIATIONS/AFFILIATIONS: Member, Judicial Council Task Force on Jury Instructions, 1997 to 2003; Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions, 2003-2008; Administrative Office of the Courts Appellate Advisory Committee, 2009-Present; Master of the Bench (Emeritus), Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court 1998 to present; Master of the Bench, Milton L. Schwartz American Inn of Court, 1995-1998.
EDUCATIONAL/PROFESSIONAL HONORS AND AWARDS: Finalist, National Moot Court Competition, 1968; Chairman of the Board, McDonough, Holland & Allen, 1994-1995.
PROFESSIONAL TEACHING/EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES: Adjunct Professor, University of California, Davis, King Hall School of Law, 1999-2000; Lecturer, Sacramento Barrister’s Club; Sacramento Area Legal Assistants; American River College. Article, McDonough, Holland & Allen Quarterly Newsletter “Insurance Coverage in Toxics and Hazardous Waste Matters.”
____________________________________________________________________________
A slim resume by any standard. And now he is “leadership”?
____________________________________________________________________________
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We attach an article by Courthouse News reporter Maria Dinzeo which includes quotes from council members Justice Harry Hull and Justice Doug Miller. An attempt is made to justify Justice Hull’s self imposed rule that Alliance members submit requests to him via U.S. mail rather than by email. We trust your judgment to discern whether his explanation makes sense in our digital world.
Directors, Alliance of California Judges
Related articles
- Battle for Information in the Judiciary (Courthouse News)
- Bureaucrats continue to stonewall judges with new tactics (judicialcouncilwatcher.wordpress.com)
- Judges Ask To Be Paid To Attend A Highly Politicized Judicial Conference (businessinsider.com)
Related attachments
Judicial Council Watcher 
Wendy Darling
October 4, 2012
“We are hopeful that the Chief Justice will end this unfair treatment of her judicial colleagues and immediately direct that council members and AOC staff respond to these legitimate requests for information without delay.”
Uh-huh. Pigs will fly first, and hell will freeze over — at the same time.
Long live the ACJ.
disgusted
October 4, 2012
What a sad, shameful state of affairs!
JusticeCalifornia
October 4, 2012
This behavior is so disappointing. . . .and so demeaning to the branch.
Side note: May I respectfully suggest that people asking for documents routinely include a non-spoliation request, just so it is documented?
Robert Turner
October 4, 2012
No surprise that he comes from Tani’s old court. The wagons are circled and the AOC is a scared insular bunch. They have no credibility to lead CA Courts after all of the scandals and are on defense only. Tani herself is there because of a ego maniac steroid using bodybuilder who is now despised by the people of CA for cheating on his wife in private and publicly letting a convicted felon go in his final days in office because Nunez was the relative of a speaker of the house. Pathetic and shameful.
Nearly as shameful is our current Chief’s closed mind. She is a woman and a minority in a position of leadership but she does not want to hear voices of dissent from within her own organization? How can this be? She’s as much a voice for minorities and women in CA as Clarance Thomas is a voice for the African American community nationally.
If Prop 30 fails in a month then real financial pressure comes back to CA govennment. The Legislature and Governor will really need to find money and the AOC is a perfect target.
unionman575
October 4, 2012
Nice Bio JCW!
😉
Lando
October 5, 2012
The arrogance of power. It has undermined our judicial branch since former CJ George arrived as Chief. Justice Hull is a continuation of that arrogance. The current Chief and her insular supporters like Hull just don’t get it. They use their power to waste time delaying and attempting to scare off reasonable requests for information from a public agency while trial courts all over the state are dying. The video of Hull posted by JCW proves the point.Its nice and all he came out of his tower to meet with the lowly trial courts but he and his insider allies fail to recognize that it is their wasteful abuse of taxpayer money that has in large part caused this financial disaster to our courts. Hull’s arrogance extends to retaliation against a group of over 450 judges who are just seeking reform and accountability. Will his embroilment and retaliation against his fellow judicial officers be subject to any accountability ? When pigs fly and hell freezes over.
unionman575
October 5, 2012
“trial courts all over the state are dying”.
Yes we are ALL dying.
The OBT
October 5, 2012
Justice Hull has embarrassed the entire judicial branch with his antics. His comments to the Courthouse News are insulting and demonstrate how the “insiders” that run the crystal palace at 455 Golden Gate won’t tolerate any dissent or healthy discussion about judicial branch policies. A sad state of affairs indeed. At the very least Hull should resign from Judicial Council and slink back to his appellate post where we can only hope he treats litigants with more patience and respect.
Nathaniel Woodhull
October 5, 2012
J. Hull was a gas bag with a now defunct Sacramento insider law firm. He was fast tracked to the Superior Court and Court of Appeals by Gov. Wilson as political payback. He is just dull enough to be considered “management” by the Judicial Council.
Wendy Darling
October 5, 2012
Hull is sufficiently “not grounded in reality” to be considered “leadership” by the Office of the Chief Justice and the Judicial Council.
Nathaniel Woodhull
October 5, 2012
Good point Wendy 🙂
Wendy Darling
October 5, 2012
Published today, Friday, October 5, from the Metropolitan News Enterprise:
Alliance Blasts AOC Treatment of Information Requests
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Alliance of California Judges yesterday criticized the way the Administrative Office of the Courts handles requests for information, saying the alliance is being discriminated against.
Judicial branch leaders, the alliance said in an email blast, have “now confirmed” that the AOC, and the Judicial Council of California “have implemented a policy treating information requests from the Alliance differently from those of others.”
The email cited a Courthouse News Service story entitled “Battle of Information in Judiciary.” The article dealt with the complaint, previously made by the alliance, that instead of dealing promptly with requests for information, the AOC funnels them to Third District Court of Appeal Justice Harry Hull, who insists that requests be sent to him by “snail” mail, and in responding in the same manner.
Hull told Courthouse News that use of hand-carried mail is necessary to provide accountability.
“For certain requests, I have insisted that the requesting judge make the request to me by standard mail over the judge’s signature rather than by e-mail for purposes of accountability and to avoid a later claim that the judge did not make the request,” he wrote in an email.
“I base this in part on 40 years of practice in both criminal and civil litigation,” he added. “It ‘makes the record’ and leaves no room for claims of tampering with the message or false authorship which e-mail allows for. With his or her signature, the judge owns the letter and the message and cannot later claim to the contrary.”
The alliance yesterday questioned “whether [Hull’s] explanation makes sense in our digital world.”
The Courthouse News article also referenced emails the service received from retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charles Horan, an alliance founder, and Hull regarding the issue of response to information.
“It is obvious that Justice Hull has been personally assigned to me, and to the current directors of the Alliance of California Judges, regardless of the nature of the request, and regardless of who might actually have the information to answer it,” Horan wrote. “It appears to me and others that a high-level decision has been made to make life difficult for anyone affiliated with the Alliance of California Judges when it comes to these requests.”
Hull told Courthouse News that the Judicial Council is currently working on amending its method of handling records requests.
“This has become necessary because of the nature of certain requests that the AOC has been receiving over the past year or two,” Hull wrote. “That is, many requests from judges are for records, which requests are processed as any other request for records.”
“However, many requests the AOC has received lately are not for records but are for ‘explanations’ or simply ‘information,’ that is, not records requests at all.”
He said that between 300 and 400 hours of administrative office time had been spent on requests for information since June 1.
“We are trying to clarify the manner in which the AOC handles these requests and that it do so under the auspices of the Judicial Council,” Hull wrote.
The alliance said it has asked Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to ensure that alliance requests are placed on an equal footing with others.
“We are hopeful that the Chief Justice will end this unfair treatment of her judicial colleagues and immediately direct that council members and AOC staff respond to these legitimate requests for information without delay,” the alliance said in yesterday’s email.
http://www.metnews.com/
Long live the ACJ.
JusticeCalifornia
October 5, 2012
Let’s call a spade a spade. With the U.S. mail you can say you sent it but it got lost, or claim you didn’t get it because it got lost.
I cannot tell you how many times Kim Turner and her staff played that game.
I have been personally warned to NEVER file important or time sensitive documents by mail due Marin’s selective treatment of individuals.
Wendy Darling
October 5, 2012
“With the U.S. mail you can say you sent it but it got lost, or claim you didn’t get it because it got lost. ”
Easy solution: for 30 cents, get “Delivery Confirmation” from the USPS, and you can confirm delivery on-line.
Long live the ACJ.
wearyant
October 5, 2012
But, Wendy Darling, J Hull doesn’t “do digital” and probably wouldn’t accept confirmation of delivery online. 🙂 Perhaps he might consider holding a hearing where the digital world could be proven up to him as had to be done in the late 80s for DNA. Gore could testify about the Internet …
wearyant
October 5, 2012
No small wonder many judges might choose not to publicly support the Alliance. Annoying, sad and shameful that this could happen in the judiciary. I guess if I were trying to send J Hull a missive, after an effort at the tribal drums, I would Fax a copy, email a copy, send it regular Unitied Postal Service, also send a copy via United Postal Service, certified mail, return receipt requested with notations of each method of delivery and — let’s see. Should that do it? Maybe personal service should be considered. Then wait for a reply. But I would wager big that the next thing heard would be a big complaint from J Hull and the AOC that they are being intimidated, terrorized and pestered by all the copies sent. Rather than engage in these games, the JC should be democratized, the AOC should be ruthlessly gutted and the CJ recalled.
JusticeCalifornia
October 5, 2012
You are so right, wearyant.
Once the AOC finally admits they have the request for information, they ask that you clarify, be more specific, narrow it, put it on the correct form, or please re-direct your request. Once you have jumped through these hoops, you will be told they just don’t keep this information in a sensible, logical, readily-accessible form, and that if they can get this information at all, it is going to take six months and cost several thousand dollars, at least.
Been there, done that.
Michael Paul
October 6, 2012
I’ve also been there and done that except that the information was readily available and kept in a sensible, logical readily accessible form but they didn’t want to turn the information over, so they quoted an estimated price that would cost thousands and take at least six months to compile.
Delilah
October 5, 2012
You nailed it, Ant.
For some strange reason, the JC’s use of nonsensical drivel and backwards logic — or maybe I should say “illogic”? — caused this “paradox poem” I vaguely remembered from my youth to pop into my mind. They have gone so far “down” the rabbit hole — to put it politely and opposite of where their heads are “up” — that I fear we’ve reached the point of no return.
Ladies and gentlemen, hobos and tramps,
I stand before you and sit behind you
to tell you something I know nothing about!
Admission is free, you must pay at the door;
So pull up a chair and sit on the floor.
The show is over, but before you go,
let me tell you a story I don’t really know :
One bright day, in the middle of the night
two dead boys got up to fight.
Back to back; they faced each other;
drew their swords and shot each other.
A deaf policeman heard the noise
He came and shot those two dead boys.
If you don’t believe this lie is true…
just ask the blind man; he saw it too!
Sorry for rambling. Tired. Very tired.
wearyant
October 5, 2012
Delilah, very good. Very apropro! Thanks for posting.
Wendy Darling
October 5, 2012
Published today, Friday, October 5, from The Recorder, the on-line publication of CalLaw, by Cheryl Miller:
New CJA President Wants Judges to Pull Together
By Cheryl Miller
SACRAMENTO — As the California Judges Association prepares to gather for its annual meeting this Thursday in Monterey, incoming President Judge Allan Hardcastle is preaching the gospel of a united judiciary.
http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202573980540&New_CJA_President_Wants_Judges_to_Pull_Together
Bar President to Focus on Court Funding
By Cheryl Miller
SACRAMENTO — Patrick Kelly was named incoming president of the California State Bar just three months ago, but he’s already shuffling his priorities.
http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202574004077&Bar_President_to_Focus_on_Court_Funding
Both articles are subscription access only.
Long live the ACJ.
JusticeCalifornia
October 5, 2012
Judge Hardcastle needs to take a meeting with and preach the gospel to Tani.
Good luck, Judge Hardcastle. You are dealing with a defiant gambling barmaid with a great big ego adorning her decidely average intellect, education, background, and trusted sycophants.
The OBT
October 5, 2012
Justice Hull refuses to allow ” identified ” Alliance judges to communicate with him be e-mail because e-mail allows for claims of false authorship or tampering with the message. I am sorry but what gives Justice Hull the right to attack the credibility and honesty of “identified” Alliance judges. Does he seriously believe that a fellow judicial officer would make a lawful request for information from an administrative agency by e-mail and then lie about it or tamper with the e-mail later? That is a sad, paranoid and insulting statement . To suggest that judges you disagree with on policy matters would engage in unethical use of e-mail is beyond belief. Hull has turned a simple administrative procedure into yet another statewide embarrassment for the Judicial Council, AOC and his fellow ” insiders” at 455 Golden Gate. You can’t make this stuff up. Really.
wearyant
October 6, 2012
Very good points, The OBT. They should be made part of the record Justice California speaks of and not forgotten.
john gault
October 5, 2012
Typical government waste and bullshit. Been a longtime lurker here and I can’t believe a lot of what I’ve seen and heard. More to follow when I collect my thoughts. A couple of you on here won’t like what I have to say.
wearyant
October 6, 2012
Bring it, john gault! No reason why we shouldn’t all have some fun here. With JCW’s permission, of course. Wipe your feet on the welcome mat first.
Lando
October 5, 2012
You nailed it OBT. Hull’s actions are sad, paranoid and insulting. “Paranoia strikes deep.Into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid…” DJ Unionman I’d like to send that one out to the good Justice Hull. Buffalo Springfield For What It’s Worth
.
courtflea
October 7, 2012
Paranoia will destroy ya
I must say, doesn’t it appear that the AOC/Hull are scrambling for a way not to respond? With all of the publicity it is getting me thinks they are gettin a bit flustered in their attempts to cover up. Good ACJ has them on the run.
unionman575
October 7, 2012