Judge Karen
Judge Karen Mills-Francis is back to daytime courtroom with a new show. The retired Florida State court judge and star of TV's syndicated show Judge Karen's Court has also written a book "Stay in Your Lane: Judge Karen's Guide to Living Your Best Life" where she gives advice to help readers get on the right track. TheCelebrityCafe.com's Cynthia A. Almanzar spoke to the judge about her book and TV Series.
TheCelebrityCafe: Hi, how are you doing?
Judge Karen: I'm on the Saint Charles Street Cart in New Orleans. We are driving from Los Angeles to Miami. We left LA on Thursday morning.
TCC: What are you doing over there?
JK: Well, we wanted to see America--I particularly wanted to be able to drive across the country and see parts of the country I never saw, so when we left Los Angeles the first time was to Sedona, Arizona. From Sedona we went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, from Santa Fe we went to El Paso, Texas, and then we came into New Orleans last night and we are on a city tour on the street cart.
TCC: You have a new show on. However this isn't the first time you've had a courtroom show. What made give courtroom TV a second chance?
JK: Well, you know in 2008 when Sony Pictures Television premier show "Judge Karen" it was a very exciting time. During the first half of our first season Sony made the financial decision to cut out of the court show business —they had three court shows on television at the time— and several of the station groups were very upset that the show was being cancelled and one of those stations, Saint Claire Broadcasting, approached Lipton Entertainment about producing the show and that's how we got in the air this year.
TCC: How does your show differ from other daytime courtroom shows? What's the hook?
JK: Well, first at all I'm different. I wear a burgundy rope, I have blonde hair, so when you are flipping through the channels trying to figure out what show is "Judge Karen's Court" you know me by my look. I think that most of the Judges are trying to adjudicate the legal issue between the parties, and I do that too, but I'm also interest in the undercurrent of what's going on in most of these lawsuits. I mean I don't have litigants doing the corporation. I have mothers suing their children, sisters suing their brothers, neighbors suing neighbors and usually it's not about a hundred dollars cell phone. It's about something else going on in the relationship, some sort of emotional undertone and I try to dig up the dirt and try to help people to figure out that part and I think that makes my show very different
TCC: Caring about these people is very important in this line of work. You make decisions that affect people's life. Does it get difficult at times?
JK: Yes. Sometimes it gets very difficult. For instance, the case we had yesterday involved a daughter suing her mother—her mother was in a wheelchair—She had been a victim of a drunk driver—the mother had been and the daughter was suing her because the daughter bought the mother a new wheelchair and she thought that the mother should pay her for it. What was really sad it's that the daughter had her own DUI case and so was very emotional. Here she is out drinking and driving and can't put someone in the same circumstances that her own mother found herself and so it was very emotional. I think it brought the mother and the daughter closer together and I think that the daughter got a stronger awareness of the negative consequences of the use of alcohol when you are driving.
TCC: What had been have the most challenging part of being in this position?
JK: The most challenging part is dealing with children who want to be taken care of. That's the most challenging part, for me, of being a judge. There a lot of children in this country that are neglected and abused and I've seen a lot of those kids in family court, in divorce court, and in domestic violence cases. And children are looking to adults to take care of them and children are looking for safety and that is the saddest part of what I do, seeing children not getting that from their parents.
TCC: But this work must also have some rewards, what has been the most rewarding part about being a TV judge or a judge in general?
JK: The most rewarding part is to help people to bridge the gaps between their family members. To help people find their way back when they lost their way. That's one of the reasons why I wrote my book "Stay on Your Lane: Judge Karen's Guide to Living Your Best Life." Stay on your lane, to me, is about being focused on what you need to do in your particular circumstances. If you are a parent you need to learn to be a better parent. If you have dreams you need to get out there and make those dreams reality. So the most rewarding part of all of this, of all of what I do, in and out of the courtroom is to help people to get their way back when they got lost.
TCC: As TV judge you get to meet people in all kind of situations. Was there any particular case or cases that made you think, "This book needs to be written ASAP"?
JK: No. The book is based on all my entire life experience. I was born with a plastic spoon, not a silver spoon in my mouth and I came of very challenging circumstances. My life has been, you know, a series of twist and turns but I landed on my feet and I think everybody can because there is no such a think as 'it's over,' 'there is not tomorrow for you' I want to be people back into their live to know that there is always tomorrow and that you can lead a better life of whatever life you living in this given moment in time.
TCC: How is "Stay on Your Lane" different from other advice books on the market? What makes it special?
JK: What makes my book special is that if you go into a bookstore the biggest category of books is self-help and most of those self-help books are written by psychologists and psychiatrist and sociologist, who might have studied their craft. What makes my book different is that I lived what I wrote about. I'm not seating on some love-seat or stool looking down and saying this is how you should do it. What I'm saying is this is what I went through, I feel your pain. I have not been able to pay bills in my life sometimes. I have been in the back of a police car. I have lost my way and spent two years just hanging out on the streets when I was supposed to be in law school. So I'm not just saying I studied this I'm saying I lived this.
TCC: What do you hope the reader will take away from book?
JK: I hope that the reader would walk way feeling that they can choose/find their way and feeling a renew hope that there is a tomorrow and that there is a brighter life around the corner.
TCC: Do you plan on writing any other books?
JK: Well, you never know what tomorrow bring. My granddaddy always said, "Keep walking you don't know what's around the next corner."