Federal Judge, ‘Like So Many Others,’ Files for Bankruptcy

By Joe Palazzolo

Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., on more than one occasion, has urged Congress to pay federal judges more, pointing out that the robed ones have seen their salaries plummet over the years relative to those of other U.S. workers. Federal district judges make about $174,000 a year—just a shade more than the going rate for first-year associates at top law firms.

Judge Otis Wright II of California’s Central District, for one, could use a raise.

Wright, a George W. Bush appointee who was confirmed in 2007, has filed for personal bankruptcy, a rare thing for a federal judge. A trustee plans to put Wright’s house in Rancho Palos Verdes in Los Angeles County on the market in a bid to generate funds for creditors, according to documents filed recently in Central California bankruptcy court, which sits about a half mile away from Wright’s courthouse. The asking price: about $1.2 million.

Judge Wright listed assets of $833,426 and liabilities of $895,292 at the time of his Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing late last year. Between his home and his Mini Cooper, Wright said in the filing he owed about $800,000. He and his wife, Evelyn, a self-employed social worker, had accumulated more than $70,000 in credit-card debt, including $12,740 on a Nordstrom card, according to the filing.

A lawyer for the couple, Raymond Aver, said the judge drained his retirement funds to pay off a large lump of debt before filing for bankruptcy.

“What he did was everything he could to pay his creditors,” Aver said of the judge. “But like so many others, he’s underwater.”

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