• Judy Sheindlin is a famous judge
  • She is best known as "Judge Judy"
  • Learn more about her here

Everyone knows the curt and funny Judge from the hit show Judge Judy. But now everyone wants to know if she is really a judge or not!

Is "Judge Judy" a Real Judge?

The verdict is... Yes! Judith Sheindlin, the woman behind the absurdly addictive series Judge Judy is in fact a real judge! She earned her Juris Doctor degree at New York Law School in 1965 and passed the New York bar exam the same year. She was a corporate lawyer for a few years before Judy earned a position in the New York family court system. She prosecuted child abuse cases, domestic violence, and juvenile crime in New York City. Judge Judy is a real judge!

Judy's reputation as a "no-nonsense" prosecutor earned her an appointment as a criminal court judge in 1982 by then-Mayor, Ed Koch. She went up the ranks becoming a supervising judge and lived up to her reputation as "tough" and "harsh" but a quick and effective decision-maker. She even caught the attention of the Los Angeles Times who published an article in 1993 about the "Tart, tough-talking Judge Judith Sheindlin."

She was profiled while serving as a judge saying "I can't stand stupid, and I can't stand slow. I want first-time offenders to think of their appearance in my courtroom as the second-worst experience of their lives... circumcision being the first." She was truly trying to make her drug-riddled, crime-infested, and violent city better, one case at a time.

Judge Judy Show

This exposure led to a 60 Minutes interview and her first book Don't Pee On My Leg and Tell Me It's Raining. Finally, after having served on over 20,000 cases, she retired as a family court judge in 1996. That same year, production began on Judge Judy, the infamous court case show. It ran for 25 seasons with consistent viewings.

Judy even brought her bailiff, Petri Hawkins-Bryd who served in her Manhattan Family courtrooms, to be her bailiff on the show!

Many will remember the intense intro stating, "You are about to enter the courtroom of Judge Judith Sheindlin. The people are real. The cases are real. The rulings are final. This is Judge Judy." Whether or not the cases in each episode are in fact real is in dispute, but the entertainment is not! 

We compiled a list of our top 10 favorite classic "Judge Judy" lines from her hit series, just for you!

Also Interesting:

Top 10 Judge Judy Quotes

  • "Beauty fades, dumb is forever."
  • "'Um' is not an answer!"
  • "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining!"
  • "If you opened a book as much as you open your legs you wouldn't be in this mess!"
  • "Hello! Put on your listening ears!"
  • "Dumb ideas come from people who have dumb brains."
  • "I'm speaking!"
  • "Either you are playing dumb, or it is not an act."
  • "On your best day, you're not as smart as I am on my worst day."
  • "If you were the trophy at the end of my race, I would walk backwards."