as far as I know, the whole deal is that the producer pays all costs. If Stanky Jowee, the defendant, loses, he doesn’t have to pay the plaintiff himself. The show does.
but you have to agree to the judge’s ruling.
jb
I beg to differ, and I witnessed a perfect instance of this–albeit in another Small Claims court–concerning two out-of-control people, an actual Plaintiff and Defendant.
A woman I know–I’ll call her Sally–had moved out of an apartment house in Hawthorne. For reasons she never made clear to me, Sally took the landlady to court. I offered to appear as a witness for Sally–I was even sworn in. (As on People’s Court and Judge Judy, all the persons intending to testify are sworn in en masse, according apparently to CA civil procedure.)
Sally and the landlady constantly hollered at each other. When Judge Judy admonishes the parties to a case not to talk to each other, she is on solid legal ground in CA. (I still don’t know why her courtoom has a New York flag instead of a California flag.) In fact, I witnessed something you rarely see in a real courtoom–and certainly Judge Judy doesn’t do this: The judge, losing patience with Sally and the landlady, finally announced, “I have changed my mind!”
If anything, the parties on Judge Judy holler less than the people I watched do this, in the courtroom in Inglewood, CA.
Fopr the record, I have been a plaintiff on People’s Court myself. 
She has a New York State flag because she’s in New York not California.
23 years later and she is still judging.
I personally wish they would change the whole format of the show.
Show one case and the whole unvarnished trial.
I know they cleverly edit the thing to pieces and it makes some of the cases hard to understand.
Not that I watch it often. It’s on before the noon weather so I catch it occasionally.
Judy ain’t no angel. I believe she may be smart enough to handle the crap that gets on the show.
Eh, but they ain’t asking for my opinions.
I used to like her show. Then I found recently that she is a MAGAt. Wouldn’t watch her show now if you put a gun to my head.
Judge Judy is like many (most?) reality TV shows, whose main attraction is that they show awful or stupid people getting put in their place. This boost the self esteem of the viewers who get the satisfaction of knowing that whatever their faults at least they are better than the people on the show.
She stupid for sure then.
Gah!
Sort of. The Judge Judy show ended several years ago, though reruns continue to air. Her current show is Judy Justice, on the Freevee streaming service.
And what prompted the thread revival?
It was bumped by something that got cornfielded.
Not a fan of any “reality” tv so I don’t watch it. Not that I haven’t been unfortunate enough to catch glimpses of it. I don’t get all the hate it’s all fake anyway. None of the people on it are any more admirable than Judy. She’s putting on a show that people watch. I really hate gendered insults. Do better.
Holy shit talk about a zombie thread. I still hate gendered insults.
Well, the OP was 20+ years ago. I doubt they’ll hear you.
I’m with you tho’.
And I think these defendants and plaintiffs are real. The difference is the show creators pay/fly them to be there. I bet the judgements are paid as well.
Yep more text
What’s that mean?
It means that stupid Discourse won’t allow you to have a response of less than 5 characters.
Yep, 123 lol
IOW: there are other ways of getting around that minimum. 
Yup.
How?