Joseph Wapner

Joseph Wapner (born November 15, 1919, Los Angeles, California, U.S.—died February 26, 2017, Los Angeles) was an American jurist and TV personality who presided (1981–93) over The People’s Court, an immensely popular syndicated TV show in which plaintiffs and defendants from California small claims court argued their cases and accepted the judge’s ruling.

Wapner earned (1941) a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Southern California. The following year he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He saw action in the Pacific during World War II and was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. After his 1945 discharge, he returned to the University of Southern California, from which he received (1948) a law degree. He then went into private practice, initially with his father. In 1959 he was appointed a judge of the Los Angeles Municipal Court, where he heard traffic and small claims cases. He was elevated in 1961 to the Los Angeles Superior Court. There he handled a wide range of both civil and criminal cases. He later was chosen as the court’s presiding judge and remained in that position until his retirement in 1979. Thereafter he did private arbitration work, most frequently for divorce cases.

In the meantime, TV game show producers Ralph Edwards and Stu Billett were trying to create a courtroom program. They had determined that only small claims court, in which the litigants argued for themselves, would be sufficiently interesting. They were looking for a retired judge to star in the show, and a mutual friend suggested Wapner. The People’s Court was an almost immediate hit. Wapner was seen as both tough and fair. He required litigants to be prepared, and he did not permit interruptions. In a case in which a litigant had bought three high-end designer watches that proved to be bogus for $75, he ruled that the plaintiff had received what he had paid for, and in a case in which a boy had unknowingly purchased a stolen puppy, he awarded the puppy to its original owner and $200 to the defrauded purchaser. Damages awarded were paid from a fund established by the producers of the show. The People’s Court, which aired five days a week, was the first of the genre of nonfictional courtroom programs. By mid-1982 the show was watched, and enjoyed, in more than 90 markets in the U.S. and in several other countries as well. By 1989 The People’s Court was seen by some 20 million viewers in 200 cities.

The show not only spawned a new genre of daytime TV programming, but it also encouraged more people to bring their disputes to small claims courts. After the program ended in 1993 (it was later revived with different personnel in 1997), Wapner hosted (1998–2000) Judge Wapner’s Animal Court on the Animal Planet network. In addition, he wrote a memoir, A View from the Bench (1987).