DJ Fybel Obit

 

Today's DJ has Justice Richard David Fybel, 1946-2022

• [he wrote] more than 2,000 opinions – roughly 260 published – Fybel authored on the 4th District Court of Appeal, Division 3. He was appointed to the court in 2002 and retired in March 2022.
• “During his 20-year tenure as a justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Fybel made significant contributions to the development of California law, the pursuit of justice, and the advancement of judicial ethics,” Division 3 Presiding Justice Kathleen O’Leary said. “His opinions display a mastery of diverse areas of law and are a valuable contribution to jurisprudence. Justice Fybel firmly believed in the fair and even handed application of the law and the responsibility of the court system to promote justice.”
• Fybel chaired the California Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on the Code of Judicial Ethics for 18 years. ... He co-authored the treatise on judicial ethics, the “California Judicial Conduct Handbook,” and taught judicial ethics
• Fybel wrote and spoke extensively about the legal system in Nazi Germany, and about the Nuremberg Trials. He taught a seminar for more than a decade at Chapman University, Fowler School of Law entitled, “The Holocaust, Genocide and the Law.”
• [Dean Chemerinsky said] "Rich Fybel is one of the most truly decent people I have ever met. If the word mensch is in the dictionary, his picture is next to it.”