Judge Mathis - General Discussion

[Taeolas]

Judge Mathis is one of the longest running court shows out there. After Judge Judy, he is the longest serving court show arbitrator ever, and he is part of the 4th oldest running court show (after Judge Judy, Peoples Court and Divorce Court).

 

And for some reason, after the transition to PrimeTimer, he never got a new thread created. 

 

So here we go, a chance to talk about the Judge Mathis show, the Judge, the Bailiff and the cases. 

[Taeolas]

Apologies for the double post, but I figured I'd start things off with the new season. Season 22 started this week, with COVID restrictions in place.

The audience has been paired down to a quarter of the normal size, with everyone wearing face masks. 

The litigants are behind plexiglass barriers (would it have killed them to finish the edges of the wood holding the barriers up?). 

Judge Mathis is attending in person, with a similar barrier in front of him. Doyle is introducing the cases with a mask. And they are ready to Zoom in litigants that can't travel to attend in person as needed. 

The first cases were pretty standard fare. The paternity test case was the Zoom case, and for once it wasn't a match (seems like 1/4th of the paternity cases are not a match), which was sad for the families. Glad they could talk after the case and reaffirm that though they are not blood, they are family basically. 

 

Judge Mathis is a judge who encourages feelly cases, especially for family cases. So with the COVID restrictions, I'm curious to see what will happen when we get cases that usually end in family hugs. I suspect he'll still encourage it, and I'd be for it.

 

Anyways, it's interesting to see how the new cases roll out and all the judges are handling COVID. 

[WallStreetDuchess]

Thanks for making this thread. I am kind of hit or miss with Judge Mathis thanks to a standing Zoom meeting with my team members that lasts at least part of the time it is on here. I have this weeks on the DVR ready to dig into this weekend. 🙂

[CrazyInAlabama]

It's so strange to look at the new episodes, and see the audience wearing face shields.  

I feel so sorry for the woman in the dog attack case.      The defendant doesn't care, never will, and I only hope her landlord told her to move out, or get rid of the dog.    Another Pit Bull advocate, who doesn't care about the vicious attacks by their animals or people.  There is nothing accidental about what defendant's dog did.   

When the police class the dog as vicious and dangerous, then the landlord must be a fool to still allow that animal in their house.     Anyone who is attacked from now on should sue the landlord too. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[Taeolas]

Yeah, that Dog case was something else. Judge Mathis doesn't usually do dog cases, so we don't really know how he handles them. I'm glad he didn't rant about the dog breed, but tore the Defendant a new one for her denial. I only wish the plexiglass barriers weren't up because the book he threw at her bounced right off. 😞

[Slopjb]

Since the start of the new season, and with it set up due to COVID, the people sitting as guests have been the same people, but they just move up and back. How do they have it set up now regarding new guests on the show and how long do they get to be a guest? 

[853fisher]

It seems churlish to say so when people are working hard to bring us something under difficult circumstances, but "Mathis" looks the worst of any show I've seen in this time of COVID.  The Plexiglas looks unfinished and cheap.  The audience in bulky face shields is really distracting to me, not least because of the reflections.

This judge plays off the audience more than most, but I think they could've use a virtual audience.  "Divorce Court" has a really nice-looking semicircle of monitors and the laughter or applause comes through well.  "Judge Judy" has no audience, and I don't miss them: their problem is that she's conspicuously not in the studio but they seem to want not to show that.  "People's Court" has flatscreens at the judge's dais and the litigants' lecterns and everyone Zooms in, and it looks a bit silly, but it probably kept some jobs and at least it looks clean and unified.  "Mathis," gosh, it just looks bad to me.

Sorry for that!  I just had to get it off my chest.  I couldn't believe how awful their setup looked to me.  That said, I hope everyone involved with the show remains safe and fans enjoy.

Edited September 29, 2020 by 853fisher

[Taeolas]

I don't have much problem with Judge Mathis's set up with the plexiglass barriers. They're probably mainly more for show than anything. But my main beef is there are certain common camera angles where you can see exposed raw wood (well presswood likely) on the supports for the plexiglass.  Which is really out of place considering the rest of the wood is finished. They really should've glued a strip of veneer on those exposed edges so the look would be consistent (or at least nicer). 

[Lorna]

Perhaps I just never noticed before bc the audience as larger, but since the “Covid” series has started I’ve noticed that the audience consists of the same people for every episode. I just thought that was interesting. I would have thought it was because they tape multiple episodes in a day, but their outfits seem to change daily. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

I think all of the court shows have paid audience.    That way you don't get some loon who just wants to get their cause on TV jumping up and disrupting taping, or doing something else to ruin filming.   

[TresGatos]

A defendant was having difficulty standing and Judge Mathis called for a staff member to help and someone from the audience responded but I don't know if that's the staff member Judge Mathis was calling for or just a random audience member but it could be that the audience is being made up of staff members.

I found it interesting that in a recent case Judge Mathis was talking about having to follow your bosses orders and he let loose that his bosses have told him not to talk about marijuana.

In a recent case Judge Mathis sent a woman to rehab. In another episode he said it costs him $6,000 for every person that goes to rehab. I can't imagine the contempt Judge Judy would have for those people.

[Taeolas]

Yeah I noticed the "audience member" getting up to help that litigant. Considering no one was saying to sit back down and let the staff handle it, I would assume he is a staff member, since he got up and back down multiple times when show-staff was called. He seemed to act like someone who knew what he was doing on a production stage. 

That probably helps the show maintain a proper bubble even with in person litigants by not having a random audience, but still having a bright lit courtroom. 

 

Judge Mathis seems to be the Go-To judge for drug cases. He's softened on marajauna within reason, but he's still quite hard on the rest of the drugs. If a litigant seems to honestly want help to get off them, he'll offer all the help he can offer to them, even 'breaking character' to make the offer. It's certainly something Judge Judy or People's Court wouldn't tolerate, nor Hot Bench for that matter. 

[CrazyInAlabama]

So there's an older rerun with an audience.   There's a man who rented a room from plaintiff, and signed the lease addendum with her, and moved out without any notice.   The plaintiff admits they slept together, and defendant's witness is the new girlfriend.   The funny part is that plaintiff, and defendant's new girlfriend look so much alike, that it's bizarre, it's just the new girlfriend is shorter, but they look a lot alike. . 

Edited November 27, 2020 by CrazyInAlabama

[Anita Kay]

Is the audience on Judge Mathis, they are the same people, but does anyone know if they are employees since it would be easier to get them in attendance. Probably folks who were laid off because of covid-19. Since most of the cases are virtual, you don't need as much personnel to produced the show. So if that's what it is, it's very good that Mathis is using laid off employees. Hopefully getting paid the same check.

[Taeolas]

The audience is likely just staff (and/or studio staff not necessarily affiliated with the show), judging by how one "audience" member reacted to the litigant collapsing in one episode. 

The show still probably has mostly the same number of staff working; researchers looking for cases likely have a harder time now since many small claims courts aren't working as much as before COVID. Actual show production is probably about the same work levels; while they don't need to wrangle audiences, they do still need to reset the set depending on if it is a remote case or a local case or a hybrid case. (Not to mention cleaning the set between cases). Note how when the litigants are in person, they have a barrier in front of JM that isn't there when it's purely a remote case. 

Makeup and costuming and such are probably at similar levels as before since JM is showing up in person (as is Doyle) 

 

Anyways, last nite had a Flashback case with a callback, and a litigant of the type I really hate. The Loud Brash Woman (usually black, especially on JM) who feels that shouting louder and louder is a way to make her case. She somehow felt that JM was "on her side" and when she lost was just constantly shouting something through the last half of the case ("Hood whench" or something like that? Ugh). 

I hate that JM lets the litigants keep going on and on and on and on like that. JMM on TPC and especially JJ would've kicked them out after the first slightly raised voice, but JM lets them keep going, and even somewhat encourages cross-talk arguing. Ugh. 😞

[Lakenya]

Why are the same audience members in all the new episodes? I mean I get that they probably record a few in the same day but this one guy and this lady are there for every episode. I remember them even before the pandemic

[PrincessPurrsALot]

On 3/9/2021 at 12:28 PM, Lakenya said:

Why are the same audience members in all the new episodes? I mean I get that they probably record a few in the same day but this one guy and this lady are there for every episode. I remember them even before the pandemic

 

[Jaded]

OMG at that one plaintiff today. If you saw the episode you know who I mean....🙀

[CrazyInAlabama]

My understanding is the audience members are paid, and that way they all have waivers in place, and will behave.   I'm suspicious that the post-Covid audiences are mostly staff members.  

[JamesG]

Why are the same people always in the audience,is it a season ticket thing.

[Taeolas]

As noted above, the "Audience" during the COVID episodes is probably made up of staffers in the studio and on the show. Basically seat fillers to make the set feel fuller. That's why the same people show up across multiple episodes. (I feel a bit sorry for the cases where both litigants are remoting in; the audience spends the entire episode listening to the back of 2 TV screens and watching JM chat). 

[Tamara Thompson]

Who is that beautiful lady that sits on the Defendant's side? On the Judge Mathis show. She is there for every episode. She is remarkably gorgeous!!!!

[CrazyInAlabama]

2022 rerun is funny.   The desperate woman who hooked up with new boyfriend (with a long criminal history)  before her divorce, and then he ripped her off for the car.  They were going to be exclusive, so the woman and her daughter were going to buy a car from defendant.   They were shocked when he borrowed the car back and sold it without their knowledge.    Defendant says he sold car before they took possession, and he's suing for unpaid traffic tickets on the car he no longer owns.   She also got a loan for over $5,000, including a $1200 loan, he says gift, he never repaid.   There's a long list of 'loans' to defendant, and he never paid anything. 

  I know I'm not up with the trends, but the mother's hair is bright purple, ombre, and  there's a lot of it. I'm guessing some kind of extensions?   

Then, the woman who let her loser sister, and boyfriend move in.   The only funny part is when the plaintiff's chocolate syrup disappeared from, the fridge, and the sister and boyfriend were using it, and not for chocolate milk.   

Today's rerun is bizarre.  A nanny suing her former employers for non-payment of wages.    I only saw a little of it, but the nanny wasn't hired for care because both parents work, or are busy, but nanny says she was hired because of an open CPS / DCFS case against the wife, and she can't be alone with her own children.   

Edited June 16, 2022 by CrazyInAlabama

[CrazyInAlabama]

Today's rerun from this season is a lady named Kelly Mcfarland, she is suing her short term roommate.  She won the lotto and bought a townhouse in Henderson, NV, moved from California.  She had the super stylish asymmetrical hair that was totally bullet proof.    She moved this man as a roommate, he signed a lease, and moved out without notice.   She won her case. 

[cinsays]

I enjoyed Judge Mathis putting the stylishly expensively dressed "pastor" who was suing his daughter-in-law for the money to get the wayward son out on bail.

And he said he was adding $300 interest on the $2K loan? 

Yeah, some "pastor" 

[cinsays]

so, watched an episode the other day and the defendant looked up a little and mathis started ranting how she's disrespecting him and he dismisses the case and throws her out of the courtroom.

she did not roll her eyes, she just looked up a bit, so maybe she does this when she's thinking, nothing more than that.

i had thought that mathis must already read over everything about each case before they are shown, so that he already knows the circumstances and the legal verdict he should come up with.

but he just yesterday said that he sees/knows nothing of the case before what we see.

so it's ok for a judge to just dismiss a case because he dislikes your attitude or bruises your ego?  that's how the law works? seems wrong to me.

[Taeolas]

It was recently announced that after 24 years, Judge Mathis was going to end (and the People's Court was also ending. 

But his retirement is apparently premature. Mathis Court with Judge Mathis will be coming this fall. Sounds like it is the same format we have now, jsut with a new production company and title. 

A shame he got yoinked this year; he was 1 year shy of tying Judge Judy's record of 25 years apparently. And if we count this continuation on his total, we'd also have to count Judy Justice for Judge Judy, so he isn't catching up yet.  

[Jaded]

I'm going to miss original recipe Judge Mathis more than The Peoples Court honestly. I'm not getting my hopes up in regards to the new show Mathis Court though after seeing that it's another court show by Byron Allen. I say that because his other ones have paid actors as the litigants where they dramatize the cases so no actual money changes hands. They aren't as enjoyable to watch.

[cinsays]

I'm glad mathis is finally going to be taken off. 

Watched part of an episode today where he spent a lot of time berating the defendant, accusing her of being still on drugs without any proof other than his opinion. 

Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't but he didn't KNOW and just went on and on about how he knew EXACTLY who she was and what a disgusting person she was and he didn't want to hear anything she had to say. 

She was pre-judged, which doesn't seem to be what the justice system is supposed to be about.

[cinsays]

so he has taken over the spokesperson role for ads for one of our local law firms that used to have one of the other tv judges pimping it

i just can't get away from this guy