Judy Sheindlin

Judy Sheindlin (born October 21, 1942, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.) is an American jurist and television personality who was best known for the show Judge Judy (1996–2021).

Blum earned (1963) a Bachelor of Arts degree from American University, Washington, D.C. She was the only woman in her graduating class at New York Law School, New York City, when she earned a J.D. in 1965; she passed the bar the same year. She was married by that time, and, though she entered private practice, she soon left it to devote her time to raising her two children. Her first marriage ended in divorce, and in 1977 she married Gerald Sheindlin, a fellow lawyer who later became a judge of New York state’s Supreme Court.

Sheindlin took a position in 1972 as a prosecuting attorney in New York City’s family court. Her outspoken and forthright approach to her cases caught the eye of Ed Koch, then mayor of New York City, and in 1982 he appointed her a judge in the Bronx branch of the family court. The caseload in the court was extremely large, and she gained a reputation for handling her cases with discernment and dispatch. In 1986 Sheindlin was promoted to supervising judge in the family court’s Manhattan branch, a position she held for 10 years. Her blunt manner won her favourable attention, and in 1993 she was featured on the TV newsmagazine show 60 Minutes.

With a growing national profile, Sheindlin published her first book, Don’t Pee on My Leg and Tell Me It’s Raining: America’s Toughest Family Court Judge Speaks Out (with Josh Getlin), in 1996. Her increasing prominence persuaded TV executives to propose a courtroom show similar to The People’s Court (1981–93), with Sheindlin as the arbiter of small-claims cases, and Judge Judy was born. The show debuted in 1996 and was an immediate hit, in large part because of Sheindlin’s quick, incisive rulings and brusque, no-nonsense approach. Several other shows soon tried to emulate the success of Judge Judy (including a new version of The People’s Court, on which her husband briefly [1999–2001] presided), but none approached the popularity of Judge Judy. The program ended in 2021 after 25 seasons. Later that year Judy Justice, a new courtroom series starring Sheindlin, began streaming on IMDb TV.

In interviews, Sheindlin explained that she did not base her rulings on the laws of any particular state but rather on what she called common sense. She wrote several nonfiction works, including Beauty Fades, Dumb Is Forever: The Making of a Happy Woman (1999) and the children’s book Judge Judy Sheindlin’s Win or Lose by How You Choose! (2000). In 2012 she launched the Web site whatwouldjudysay.com, where she offered advice on a variety of topics. Sheindlin received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony in 2019.