Judge Judy Schier Hobbs

Judge Judy Schier Hobbs

By Suzanne Haberman Friday, 12 June 2009

Judge Judy Schier Hobbs, Precinct Four

• Education: Graduated from Taylor High School, attended Arlington State University, now UT-Arlington, logged 650 hours continuing education
• Experience: Family-owned bookkeeping business, mother and wife
• Took office: May 1982
• Contact: 352-4155 • www.wilco.org

What is your job as Justice of the Peace?

My big one right now is fail-to-attend-school cases. It is a Class C misdemeanor, and it is for children who miss school. If we can change the attendance behavior of this child, we all benefit, especially that child and that family in our community.
We do traffic tickets. It isn’t just the straight speeding ticket or stop sign violation. In our county we have a heavy contingency of trucks, so we have licensing and weigh officers in our precinct. We also do parks and wildlife, so we handle all the parks and wildlife cases.
In Williamson County, your JPs act as coroners, so we do inquest or any unattended death.
Then we have civil cases, small claims cases. It’s any type of money issue that [people] feel they have been wronged on. Justice civil, that’s the other civil docket in justice court. Both can go to $10,000. All of your septic system and health department violations come through here. We do all of the cosmetology-type [violations]. Agriculture violations come through justice court. Towing hearings. Property hearings. If you have stolen property, then it’s our job to determine who gets it back. The other hearings we have are animal cruelty cases. All the traffic from the toll road that’s in precinct four comes through here. Those cases are to be filed here starting in July.
We do weddings. I think I did 40-something weddings last year.

Why did you want to be a judge?

I really didn’t. In 1981, there was a group of citizens here in Taylor that came and asked me to run. The last Sunday before the filing deadline, my preacher did a sermon on public service. So the following Monday my dad and I went and I filed.

What’s the most interesting case you’ve presided over?

Years ago there was a law that said you couldn’t sell certain items on Sunday, and there was a challenge to that law. They bought a fly swatter and an ice tray on Sunday. That case was filed, a Class C, filed in my court. They were doing it to test the law. The jury came back and found the person not guilty. That case was part of the example [state legislators] used when they changed the law.

What’s the hardest part of your job?

When you have to tell someone … that you’re taking his or her license. Or when I do an eviction of a single mom with five kids, and you tell them they have to get out. You have to do it because that’s what the law is, but it doesn’t keep from squeezing your heart a whole bunch.

Being a licensed attorney is not a requirement for being a Justice of the Peace. Should this be changed?

No. It’s a peoples’ court. We’re out in the community. We’re accessible to the people. My name is in the phone book. I shop in the grocery store where my constituents shop. I go to church where they go to church. I’m involved with my community.