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Judge Judy’s annual salary —estimated at $45 million— is approximately 207 times that of U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s $217,400.

Source: National Center for State Courts.

Your Case

This summer New York City criminal defense lawyer Scott Greenfield challenged readers of his Simple Justice blog to complete the following sentence: The law doesn’t suck, it just …

We liked the idea so much, we decided to start our own version. Complete this sentence in the comments below:

Times are tough for lawyers right now, but I am still grateful to be part of the profession because ...

75% of Americans see jury service as a civic duty rather than a burden, although only 27% have personally served on a jury.

81% of former jurors say the experience was a positive one.

Source: DRI National Poll on the Civil Judicial System, August 2012.

Say What?

“Judges and lawyers have traditionally not viewed themselves as having a central role in public education about law and government. We thought that other elements of society had ownership of that task. But the diminished capacity of some of these elements (especially the incredibly shrinking press), suggest that the profession must be more assertiveon this front.”

—Randall Shepard, former Indiana Supreme Court chief justice, writing at theatlantic.com on June 27, 2012.

Judicial candidates in primaries spent more than $4.6 million in television advertisements this election cycle, according to NYU School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice.

Survey Says

• •Real estate
• •Plaintiffs personal injury
• •Family law

... are the three practice areas that drew the most malpractice claims from 2008 to 2011, according to a recent ABAsurvey on legal malpractice claims.

Source: Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability.

You’ve Got (Less) Voicemail

The number of people using voicemail is on the wane. According to a recent Vonage study prepared for USA Today, the number of messages being left on the VOIP provider’s voicemail accounts has fallen 8 percent over the last year. And the number of people retrieving messages from the system is down some 14 percent, proving that you are not the only one annoyed by the flashing red light on your phone.

Do you find voicemail annoying? Tell us in the comments below.