Top 10 Saddest Judge Judy Moments

The plaintiff put her parents’ electricity in her name while she lived with them, but they never paid her back and it tanked her credit score. Defendants Allan Evans and Jacalyn Whittemore don’t seem completely able to understand or answer the judge’s questions. It might be because of guilt or because they’re genuinely having trouble, but it seems like a difficult and depressing situation. It’s hard not to feel bad for the daughter, who’s having to take her own parents to court because they have no desire or the wherewithal to do right by her.

It’s every young parent’s deepest fear. If you can’t trust the people hired to take care of your kids, who can you trust? Tiffany Walker and her husband dropped her children off at Heather Scherer’s daycare. That night, one of them had a broken leg and had to undergo surgery. Scherer blames the plaintiffs’ other child for injuring the child, which is a bold defense as they were both in her care at the time. Her demeanor is almost disturbingly flat. Whether it’s guilt or annoyance, she’s completely checked out, which doesn’t bode well for a childcare provider. The fact is that no one, neither the child nor the parents, should have had to go through this.

Neva Miller sues her deceased grandson’s fiancée, Shelby Morrison, so she will pay for the man’s headstone, even though Morrison has already paid for the funeral. Morrison is so over this heartless family’s antics she’s not even pursuing the remainder of her deceased fiancé’s life insurance policy because they’ve made life so difficult for her. Despite saying the defendant didn’t provide a headstone, the defendant has proof that she did, and it comes out at that point that the grandmother just hadn’t been to the cemetery since. While it’s terrible to lose a grandchild, it’s clear Miller is being petty for the sake of being petty. For her, it was all about the money.

You’d think that your dog biting a child might be a wakeup call to do something to prevent future incidents. But for some people, it’s easier to blame children for their own negligence. That was the case with these defendants. One was walking their dog when it bit the plaintiff’s offspring. As the judge is talking to the sweet kid, the dog owner can’t help but call him a liar. However, the judge isn’t so sure she has any right to call someone dishonest, as she has plenty of holes in her story. When her husband steps in and says the dog actually had reason to bite the boy, it becomes apparent just how low these two will stoop to avoid responsibility.

Siblings can have their fights, but most don’t end up in court. Corie Kolthoff sues her older sister for repayment on dental work she paid for. Defendant Carissa Kolthoff attests she only needed the dental work because Corie had punched her in the jaw a couple years before. But the absolute worst part is that Carissa stopped paying because her sister, who, remember, is the one suing, is currently dating the father of Carissa’s children. Despite being legally right, the plaintiff is morally wrong. No one was on her side after that. Even the judge, who normally tries to stay out of the drama, can’t help but weigh in.

“Judge Judy” fans will never forget how this one turned out. Although it ends happily, with Judge Judy playing King Solomon in a case about a lost dog, the defendants’ actions in this case are pretty pathetic. She says she bought a dog from a woman on the street. However, the plaintiff contends the dog is actually his and has been missing for months. She settles it fairly. She tells the defendant’s daughter to let the dog down… and he immediately runs to the plaintiff, his old owner. Even as her mother tells her not to. The fact that she knows it’s the plaintiff’s dog and is trying desperately to keep it in spite of that is some truly disgusting behavior.

Grief makes everything messy. In this case, funeral home owner Monty Roberts offered to bury Cheryl Torres’ son for free. However, she declined, opting for a grant that would pay for the full service she felt was proper. Once she did not receive that grant, she was on the hook for the full cost and decided not to pay the funeral home. Due to the tremendous pain surrounding the loss of her son, Torres is clearly on the edge of tears the entire time. The judge gets no pleasure from ruling against her, and Roberts looks like he’d rather be anywhere else than suing a mother who’s lost her child. There are no winners here.

Things in this roommate dispute were almost too bizarre to be true. Kyley Jones claims the defendant, ex-roommate Octavia Camby, poured boiling water on her while she slept, and that the police didn’t arrest her attacker because he was a “fugazi” officer. With a little more digging, it becomes clear that Jones was incredibly high on PCP when the officers responded, and was too incoherent to advocate for herself at the scene as a result. Judge Judy offers some words of wisdom, but in that special way only she can. Jones is left in tears by the end. She wins her case, but it’s apparent she was her own worst enemy.

The plaintiff in this uncomfortable case gave the defendant money for a work-related substance use test and never paid her back. She alleges he spent the money on illicit substances instead. Judge Judy can be a hard nut to crack, but it’s clear the defendant can’t even stand in place long enough for her to hear the case. As he shudders and stumbles over his words at the lectern, the defendant can barely string a sentence together, and it’s pretty clear he’s going through withdrawal symptoms. Rather than submit him to any more questioning, she realizes he needs help and offers to assist him.

The circumstances of this case are uniquely harrowing. Wendy Moore gave her teenage son permission to drive her car, and he gave the keys to his young friend, who was also too young to drive. She was killed in the accident. Would you believe it’s the irresponsible woman who gave her son her keys that’s suing the dead girl’s mother for damages? Well, that’s exactly the kind of barrel-scraping, repugnant behavior on display in this infamous case. While the grieving mother can barely keep herself composed in court, the unfeeling plaintiff and her son are not smart enough to be grateful he made it out alive. They just want money. Needless to say, the judge is unsympathetic to their problem.