Kick the judge off the bench!
jperdue:
The last time I checked, being a big black man was not against any laws that I know of, well, at least not here in California, and as it happens, nor is being a small white man, or a chubby brown man, or a dyslexic gay-atheist from Mars. Unfortunately though, it may be against some people's personal taste and color preference despite your service to the country, and unfortunately you seem to have drawn the short straw when it came to case allocation and have apparently landed Nathan Bedford Forest for a judge.
The racial and social prejudice notwithstanding, self representing litigants also tend to get the dirty end of the judicial stick from both the judges (some, not all) and the opposing attorneys (almost all of them) and are frequently sold short and taken advantage of by virtue of their lack of legal knowledge, especiallyof procedural law.
Any ways, there is a fairly painless and simple solution to the main problem which is the judge who is presiding over your case. I hope you do not take offense at what I am about to say because none is meant, but you simple HAVE TO stop being timid and in awe of this judge and go on the offensive and try a (hopefully just) once-in-a-lifetime, tell-your-grandchildren legal maneuver by way of which you can level the playing field somewhat and lower the odds considerably.
Have you ever told a bent judge to go take a long walk off a short pier? Well, here is your chance, and considering your situation both legally and financially, this is simply a must do in order to have a chance of reversing some of the previous rulings.
You can do this by making a Motion to Recuse Judge, which is a fancy way of saying you want another judge because this one is biased towards you and that you believe you will not receive a fair hearing. It is sometimes referred to as a Peremptory Challenge and although the preferred method of tabling this motion is in a pleading format (argued in writing on the 28 line paper), you may also use standard Judicial Council Forms which are available at all court houses or downloadable from the court's website; Just fill in the blanks and file it with the clerk. The last, but still effective method of moving to recuse a judge is by making an oral motion while in court before him; this has to be done right after he asks the parties to state appearances (name and rank, etc.) and before the matter is heard.
The absolute letter of the rule says quite clearly that no judge can continue presiding over a case once the motion to recuse him has been made and his impartiality has been seriously brought into question by the moving party. The crux of this motion however, is that it is heard by the very judge it aims to dispose of and the motion is sometimes denied, in which case you can preempt it by demanding in your motion that it be heard by an alternative judge.
In any which way, you will eventually get another judge to hear the case who at the very least, will be aware of the fact that you are there to play ball and have already kicked one referee off the field. I will of course be remiss if I did not suggest that you should consider hiring an attorney, which you have said you cannot afford which is universally understood and hence the vicious circle. But I will be happy to help with the motion and some pointers on how to approach the hearing.
fredrikklaw