Controversial state Supreme Court Judge Noach Dear managed to give himself a demotion — returning to a lower court two days a week where lawyers say he routinely allows deadbeats to cheat debt.
On Mondays and Tuesdays, Dear sits in the Brooklyn Civil Court room he used to occupy before his election to the state Supreme Court and doles out his unique brand of justice.
Dear appears to be particularly popular among members of his own Orthodox Jewish community, who disproportionately seem to get their cases heard before him instead of other Civil Court judges.
On three Mondays when Dear was on vacation in August, the courtroom was devoid of Orthodox defendants. But they returned when the judge did on Sept. 5.
Since another judge sits Wednesday through Friday, “Orthodox cases before Dear are adjourned to Mondays or Tuesdays — no other dates,” one lawyer said. The Post observed that he also adjourned non-Orthodox cases to his days in court.
Lawyers complain that Dear often throws out cases brought by credit-card companies or small businesses against consumers who haven’t paid their bills or — lawyers say — pushes those plaintiffs to accept lowball settlements.
“Case is dismissed. Have a nice day,” he said to one stunned defendant last week.
The woman told The Post she had come to court expecting a battle over her $1,400 credit-card bill. “I didn’t have to fight or nothing,” said the thrilled defendant.
It was the lawyers for credit-card and collection companies who celebrated in 2015 when Dear won the state Supreme Court post, hopeful they could finally taste legal victory under a replacement judge.
But just nine months after Dear was elected to the higher bench, he returned part-time to his former courthouse to oversee the low-level debt cases.
After he was elected to Civil Court in 2007, he was so desperate to get a promotion, The Post reported, that he volunteered for a weekend stint in Criminal Court.
But he was booted after controversially ruling in a 2012 case that cops should lab-test liquids for alcohol before enforcing public-drinking laws.
Dear’s election to Supreme Court was thanks to a backroom deal with Brooklyn Dems, The Post reported.
“I’ve never seen someone resurrect himself from the pits of the Supreme Court like he was able to do,” one lawyer told The Post.
Once back in Civil Court, creditors’ lawyers say, Dear has continued to treat them like the enemy. He pressures defendants to take settlements that leave banks and other creditors accepting much less then what they claim they’re owed, lawyers said.
“It’s exactly what he says or nothing. You either take it or you’re going to get screwed,” said one of five plaintiff’s lawyers who spoke to The Post.
Another lawyer said trying a credit case before Dear is a “suicide mission.”
During trials, Dear’s standard line is that he doesn’t find the witness for the credit-card or collection company “credible,” lawyers said.
Earlier this month, Dear suggested that a case against a Hasidic man who owed $7,200 be dropped after the man claimed some of the credit card charges were fraudulent.
“I think Judge Dear is fair,” Joseph Harrison, who represents members of the Orthodox community, told The Post. “I’ve had worse experiences with other judges in the building.”
He insisted his Orthodox clients do appear before other judges.
Joshua Bronstein, a lawyer who also represents the Orthodox community, has racked up a string of favorable outcomes for his clients in front of Dear in the last year, including a $15,694 debt settled for $2,000; a $19,992 debt slashed to $3,500; and a $5,612 debt cut by 90 percent to $561, records show.
A half dozen cases were “discontinued” with nothing in the case file to indicate a settlement, likely meaning they were simply dropped. The vanquished debts ranged from $2,568 to $21,562.
During one of Bronstein’s cases that went to trial last November, Discover bank presented a thick file of outstanding bills against a Connecticut woman who owed $11,148 to retailers like Bloomingdale’s, Anthropologie and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Yet Dear ruled against Discover saying it had “failed to prove its case.”
Bronstein declined to talk to The Post. Dear did not return a request for comment.
A court system spokesman called Dear’s assignment a “mutual decision,” contending that the civil court was “strapped for resources.”
“His going over to the lower court is an efficient way to hear the cases.” Lucian Chalfen said.