Judge Janey won’t be like Judge Judy, except sort of, in a way.
She is Saginaw County District Court’s new attorney magistrate, and a major part of her duties is to oversee small claims.
“It is somewhat similar (to TV judge shows) in that there are no attorneys involved,” Janey says. “It’s only the litigants, and then the magistrate decides.”
Ms. Lamar, a 2006 product of Saginaw High and SASA, is the first African American woman to serve in the position. She was interviewed and appointed by Chief Circuit Judge Darnell Jackson in tandem with the District Court judges.
She began her work career with a bachelor’s degree in sociology which led to her employment as a Children’s Protective Services advocate. Conditions and scenarios that she encountered sparked her desire to strengthen her influence by becoming a lawyer, and her 2015 degree from Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans.
In addition to dealing with warrants and hearings, Lamar says she especially looks forward to performing marriages at the courthouse.
A year ago she made a full-fledged bid for District Court family judge, a post eventually won by Brittany Dicken. She says she has declined to dwell in discouragement over the defeat.
She finds numerous role models in the legal profession and in civil rights leadership, but her main heroes are within the family.
Her mother, Pamela Jordan, has passed away but still lives in spirit. She was director of the former New Alternatives Youth Services Center that was based in the Wolverine State Baptist Convention headquarters, in the old YWCA building near St. Mary’s Cathedral.
Grandmother Patricia Lamar is in care but doing better in the new year. She was longtime Queen Mother for the annual Saginaw African Cultural Festival.
“Both my mother and grandmother were leaders in the community,” Janey says, “and I am grateful for the opportunity to follow in their footsteps.”
