A judge who declares that he will settle a child visitation dispute by flipping a coin, and orders a woman to drop her trousers in court, is unlikely to enjoy a long and distinguished judicial career. And so it was with Judge James Michael Shull, who was recently removed from office by the Virginia Supreme Court.

Shull admitted tossing a coin to determine which parent should have a child at Christmas. He said he was trying to encourage the parents to decide the issue themselves. The request for a woman to take down her trousers came in a case in which she was seeking a protective order against a partner who she claimed had stabbed her in the leg. The judge knew the woman had a history of mental problems, and said he wanted proof of her claim.

The Virginia Supreme Court noted that Shull had appeared before the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission in 2004 for allegedly calling a teenager a “mama’s boy” and a “wuss”, and for advising a woman in court to marry her abusive boyfriend. That complaint was dismissed but Shull was asked to learn from the experience.

Around the world, judges have been removed from office for some odd things, including smuggling whisky and being in psychology classes as a student at a local university instead of presiding in court. But coin-tossing is rare. In an industrial injury case in England 1965, speaking about the way someone doing a judicial job should make his decisions, Lord Justice Diplock said: “He must not spin a coin or consult an astrologer”. So far, judges in the UK have done neither.

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Judicial coin flipping, though, isn’t unprecedented in America. “Is your client a gambling man?” Judge Alan Friess asked the lawyer of Jeffrey Jones at Manhattan Criminal Court in 1982. Jones had pleaded guilty to theft but had objected to a proposed 30-day jail sentence, saying 20 days would be fairer. The judge then asked a District Attorney for a 25 cent coin and ordered the defendant to flip it and call. Jones called tails, won, and got his 20 days. But the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct didn’t want to gamble on Friess in future, and so flipped him from office.

Professor Gary Slapper is Director of the Centre for Law at The Open University

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