When Your Judge Isn't A Lawyer
Do you want to be a massage therapist in Helena, Montana? You’ll need 500 hours of study to receive your license first.
What about a barber at a shop in Billings? Get ready to spend 1,500 hours practicing your craft.
How about one of state’s justices of the peace, with the power to send defendants to prison for up to six months? You’re in luck—only a four-day certification course is necessary.
No law degree is required, either—only the approval of the voters in your county. While Montana’s rules are not the norm in America, they’re also not unheard of. Twenty-eight states require all judges presiding over misdemeanor cases to be lawyers, including large states like California and Florida. In 14 of the remaining 22 states, a defendant who receives a prison
