"The Robing Room: NY State Judges

Hon. Esther M. Morgenstern	See Rating Details
Supreme Court
Kings (Brooklyn) County	See Comments

Attorney Average Rating: 2.0 - 5 rating(s) Non-Attorney Average Rating: 1.0 - 11 rating(s)	Please send me alerts on this judge E-mail Address:

Add your own rating

E-Mail Address ()

* *

Confirm E-mail Address

* * *

Zip

Occupation

Add a comment only

Only items marked with (*) are averaged into the displayed overall rating.

General Rating Criteria

* Temperament		(1=Awful,10=Excellent)
* Scholarship		(1=Awful,10=Excellent)
* Industriousness		(1=Not at all industrious,10=Highly industrious)
* Ability to Handle Complex Litigation		(1=Awful,10=Excellent)
* Punctuality		(1=Chronically Late,10=Always on Time)
* General Ability to Handle Pre-Trial Matters		(1=Not all Able, 10=Extremely Able)
* General Ability as a Trial Judge		(1=Not all Able, 10=Extremely Able)
Flexibility In Scheduling		(1=Completely Inflexible,10=Very Flexible)

Criminal Rating Criteria (if applicable)

* Evenhandedness in Criminal Litigation		(1=Demonstrates Bias,10=Entirely Evenhanded)
General Inclination Regarding Bail		(1=Pro-Defense,10=Pro-Government)
Involvement in Plea Discussions		(1=Not at all Involved, 10=Very Involved)
General Inclination in Criminal Cases Pretrial Stage		(1=Pro-prosecution,10=Pro-defense)
General Inclination in Criminal Cases Trial Stage		(1=Pro-prosecution,10=Pro-defense)
General Inclination in Criminal Cases Sentencing Stage		(1=Pro-prosecution,10=Pro-defense)

Civil Rating Criteria (if applicable)

* Evenhandedness in Civil Litigation		(1=Not at all Evenhanded,10=Entirely Evenhanded)
Involvement in Settlement Discussions		(1=Not at all Involved,10=Very Involved)
General Inclination		(1=Pro-defendant, 10=Pro-plaintiff)

Comments

Please type what you see below:

Not an even number!

What others have said about Hon. Esther M. Morgenstern

Comments

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: NY13560
Rating:1.0

Comments:
[redacted] I know for a fact she had the transcript of my appearance altered by the court stenographer. She is prejudiced, a liar and not normal. Thousands of people want her off the bench in a CHANGE petition online. She is finally leaving the bench. Good riddance.

Civil Litigation - Private

Comment #: NY13352
Rating:3.6

Comments:
It is very tough to rate Morgenstern accurately because the apparatus imposed upon her the duty of judging criminal, divorce and no-marital children law all in one courtroom. Added to that is the unamanagable case load that features dozens of cases each day. The results are terrible, but the judicial system is to blame, not Morgenstern.

Moregenstern simply does not have the time to adequately assist the parties to present a case, so she defaults to pressurized settlements and adjournments. She is stuck with basic policy imperatives which she must enforce: protecting victims of domestic violence, favoring custody to young mothers and then to older fathers, and ordering child support. The impression is that one side, the victim, wins and the other side, the perpetrator, does not stand a chance. This is the system in every county throughout the United States today.

As for expertise in the areas of the law she enforces, criminal, marital and non-marital family law, she relies on a few basics. In the minutes she has for each case, she will identify the issue, apply the tidbit of law she knows, and off goes another adjournment. She conducts trials which involve a sanitized record based on her objections rulings. These will favor the victim's side and disfavor the perpetrator's side.

That is a very good way to understand Morgenstern. She is directed by her supervisors to give the public the impression she is hard on perpetrators, which is usually young fathers. We are in a victimocracy today, and the victim is the victor. The problem with this fascist approach is that men, the backbone of the family and the national economy, are systemically being trivialized by the court apparatus. Young fathers do not matter, and Morgenstern is commanded to make it that way. Thousands of judges throughout this land must make it that way.

Morgenstern does the best she can, but her leadership set her up to fail. She is too powerful and too overloaded. Families are left bewildered after her rulings, and only a political shake up can stop this menace to families and save Morgenstern and her career as a jurist.

Litigant

Comment #: NY13338
Rating:1.0

Comments:
The Judge favors her attorneys. It depends who is your attorney. There is a list of attorneys who she deals with and if yours is on that list-you are the winner. Otherwise you are screwed.

Litigant

Comment #: NY13337
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Men hater! She is always on the side of the women. Don't even think if you are male to get anything from his b..

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: NY12821
Rating:1.8

Comments:
Worst judge, Always on women side even my ex is indicted of abuse of my child and the child is still with my ex. She would not allow me visiting unsupervised even my ex should not be prenting the child.
I am afraid and heartbroken. I wish i was not even born to see this day.

Other

Comment #: NY12776
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
she has actually heard a case that she had prior dealings in business with years before. she never should have been allowed to preside over that case. conflict of interest. she took her personal vendetta and used it as a weapon from her bench. Remove her and rehear her cases....

Litigant

Comment #: NY12617
Rating:1.0

Comments:
there is no zero rating, this creature doesnt deserve 1 rating, shes horrible wrong and give away order of protections like its a bonus destroying kids future

Litigant

Comment #: NY12549
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This Judge is very Biased and generally anti-father! She does not provide opportunity to present your case, nor does she review petitions filed, which she has stated on record. She is very disrespectful and speaks over you as you are trying to present information to the court.
The court is required to make rulings in the best interest of the child, but this Judge only cares of her own interests.
My case was moved into her court years ago, due to falsified charges which were ultimately dismissed. She will not relinquish my case back to Family Court as she should and the only positive ruling I ever received from IDV, was from her counterpart Justice White when there were 2 IDV courts in Brooklyn and she was not on the bench that day.
If you review the organizations she is affiliated with, they are virtually all pro-woman/mother. This would otherwise be fine if she was not supposed to be an impartial & unbiased Jurist!

Other

Comment #: NY12455
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This judge is the only person who handles domestic violence cases in ALL of Brooklyn. Do you know that the population of Brooklyn is larger than Chicago? She the ONLY judge handling these kinds of cases for ALL of it. If you go to any regular day that her court is open in Downtown Brooklyn you can see that the law is treated like a conveyor belt and all the litigants are like tuna cans. She spends little to no time on each case which prevents her from getting involved in the least. She has barely any recollection of what’s going on with each case and confuses litigants and their counsel with the endless line of others on her calendar. Her go to move is to scare and punish fathers by allowing opposite counsel to say whatever they want without liability. When that doesn’t work she withholds the children like some kind of bully. She does more harm than good. She doesn’t judge anything and just acts like some kind of sick games how host on a power kick. She should be ashamed and removed from this position. Brooklyn deserves a lot better.

Other

Comment #: NY12452
Rating:1.0

Comments:
My son is going through a divorce and this judge is over seeing it. She is the complete opposite of what you’d expect from a judge. She is very biased against my son for no reason. The mother says lots of bad things and the judge takes them as truth. She won’t allow my son to show any evidence that what the mother is saying isn’t true. She makes him go through all these things to make sure he’s safe based on what the mother says when there is no history of doing wrong in the past. The judge only gives each couple very little time and it looks like she keeps the kids away from the dads in each case.

Other

Comment #: NY12436
Rating:1.0

Comments:
There’s something deeply wrong with this judge. Families are sent to her for help and she puts them against each other. She only punished the fathers and never goes after the mothers. She acts confused and doesn’t seem to be clear on what’s going on from case to case. She even makes snide comments about lawyers which seems tacky and biased. She barely does anything and just let’s issues fester hoping they will just work themselves out which goes on for years in a lot of situations. I’ve watched as shes told litigants to do one thing and then the following court date to do another. I’ve seen her order fathers to do something to get more time with their children and then the next date still keep the children away from him even after he did as she ordered. She seems to only want the power with what goes with being a judge and none of the actual work. Her demeanor is awful.

Other

Comment #: NY12424
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
A good friend has this judge overseeing his divorce. I’ve been to the court and watched first hand how she runs things. She appears easily confused and the decisions she makes contradict her own words involving the case. I’ve read transcripts of their court appearances. She completely ignores valid evidence like doctor’s reports and makes judgements based on her lack of expertise in the health field when a child’s health is in question. She cuts off the father’s attorney when it’s his time to explain and defend the father and gives the mother’s attorney as much time as he wants. I’ve seen her handle multiple divorce and custody cases in the past and she sided with the mother in every instance no matter what the situation or evidence the fathers bring to support their side. She’s openly asked lawyers on one case why there were multiple motions opened and what they were about. The lawyers not knowing what she was referring to she just closed them all without investigating any more into there existence. This person is an embarrassment to our legal system and needs to be removed as soon as possible. She’s destroying people’s lives!!!

Other

Comment #: NY12422
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This judge is HORRENDOUS!!! Other judges and lawyers who know her refer to her as a “steamroller”. She is EXTREMELY biased against fathers. I have seen her take the side of a mother purely on words and when the father has evidence the judge has ignored it. She keeps children away from fathers even when the fathers do as the judge asks and shows proof that outside professionals involved with interactions with the child only have good things to say about the father. She holds “meetings” instead of actual court proceedings so that she can do whatever she likes and there is no due process. Many have witnessed her bad behavior and forgetfulness. She doesn’t even seem to understand the law at times. She is unscrupulous and abusive towards fathers and leaves lawyers shocked by her decision making and behavior. Truly the worst of the worst and something needs to be done about her.

Other

Comment #: NY12148
Rating:1.0

Comments:
This judge temperament is horrendous. She falsify records. Doesn't even remember what order she given last. Victimized the victims and protects the abusers. She order a forensic exam to be done and doesn't even bother reading the report because it benefited the good parent. She targets good mothers and victimized them more. Then make threats when you ask a simple question. She needs to be debenched and arrested. She follows her own law and rules.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: NY12054
Rating:1.0

Comments:
New York City’s most poisonous jurist, Morgenstern weaponizes children to pursue her own goals. A zealous advocate for maximizing Title IV-D funding, she abhors the concept of shared parenting, and always assigns a winner and loser. She is terrified of public scrutiny, employing a cohort of armed officers to patrol the gallery for people photographing or recording her. A decision she made on February 10, 2020 is a good example of why she has good reason to fear scrutiny. A father of two children had asked Morgenstern to enforce an order she had made a year before to clear up mold in the mother’s apartment, which was endangering the children’s health. When the mother ignored the order, Morgenstern refused to enforce, and instead ordered the father to pay the mother child support. The father responded that he had just made a $4,000 payment, and again asked her to protect the children. Morgenstern replied: “Write her a check, and she will have the mold inspection. Adjourned.” Another order which she signed on December 13, 2017, is another good example of her arrogant disregard for the Law. It stated that “the father shall pay $2,000 in child support arrears by Jan 2, 2018. If not, visits are suspended.” This order was an attempt to extort a parent of money, using the threat of ending his parenting time. And Morgenstern carried through on the threat: the children have hardly seen their father since, and not at all since March 16, 2020. Morgenstern’s support/visitation linkage is illegal: Under New York law, visitation may not be denied solely for reasons unrelated to the best interest and welfare of the child. As such, the failure of the non-custodial parent to make payments of support is an insufficient basis for a court to deny parenting time.

Other

Comment #: NY12053
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
judge Morganstern is a terrible judge. She never looks at facts or documents and is very biased towards men. She doesn’t care about anything relative to the case-only to keep the day moving. These are peoples lives at stake here and she disregards all evidence and makes decisions on whim and emotion. How is that justice?
Overall SHE is a clown and her court room is a circus. Very sad as she’s playing with peoples lives and children. She truly affected my small child and has given a terrorist the upper hand over the kids.
She could not have gotten to her position without doing questionable things. This is a very sad and unjust world and I see it through Jusge Morganstern more than over.

Litigant

Comment #: NY11397
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Totally illegal—assigns counsel only to one party, falsifies records. Should not be on bench; should be in prison.

Other

Comment #: NY11275
Rating:1.0

Comments:
Esther Morgenstern is a horrible judge, she very bias she give custody to my ex husband and throw my case over to family court.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: NY10185
Rating:2.8

Comments:
Is never on time and leaves early.

Litigant

Comment #: NY7997
Rating:1.0

Comments:
I was told by my attorney that drawing Judge Esther Morgenstern was unfortunate as the other judge in that part of the courthouse was known to be more reflective and fair-minded. While that initial warning could have clouded my opinion, spending more than a year visiting her court room only confirmed my attorney's original assertion. Judge Morgenstern regularly chastises, shouts at and ridicules lawyers and litigants alike. Upon the start of many hearing she often seemed wholly unaware of the generics of the case much less the details. Often contradicting and reversing decisions she had just openly expressed, Judge Morgenstern seemed, at times, almost unstable. In her courtroom, almost all are on edge, not certain whether to anticipate the affable, judge with a pleasant disposition, or the bully. Understand, she is well-known for her antics and for her rash actions and hostile comments. When I mentioned to another attorney who I had previous dealings with that Judge Morgenstern presided over my case he responded with a simple and sympathetic, "Oh." A colleague of his who was with him at the time simply stated, "Good luck with that." And, truly it is luck you will likely need.

Criminal Defense Lawyer

Comment #: NY3024
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
Knew her when she was law secretary to Judge Kramer--she was terrific then as she is now!

Other

Comment #: NY2627
Rating:Not Rated
Comments:
My apologize for my comments about Hon.Esther M.Morgenstern. At any case I am not allowed criticize that decision of government emploee. I am sorry. Happy Holydays and New Year.