An Iowa court official on Wednesday ordered an independent investigation into a retired state judge who admitted that he allowed attorneys on the winning side to ghost-write opinions in at least 200 cases. State Court Administrator Todd Nuccio appointed Senior Judge Robert Hutchison and retired court administrator David Boyd to review retired Plymouth County Judge Edward Jacobson's admission last year that he requested opinions from attorneys on one side of cases without the knowledge of the other side. They also are to look into how court orders are tracked in the current electronic filing system. Attorney Rosanne Plante filed a complaint about Jacobson with the state's Attorney Disciplinary Board, which hears professional conduct complaints about attorneys. Plante represented Elisabeth Treiber, a woman fighting her daughter's father in a child custody case, and believes the case was resolved with one of Jacobson's ghost-written orders.

Source: ABC News March 28, 2018 21:33 UTC