Jeffrey S. Sunshine

The most inaptly named judge in America, Sunshine is another judge who has presided over the tragic destruction of families. He has somehow risen to the powerful position of “supervising matrimonial judge”, a position he has consolidated by having his own wife, Nancy, appointed as the Kings County Supreme Court chief clerk. The biggest stain on his record is his role in the murder of a three-year-old-child and the suicide of his father, Dmitriy Kanarikov. According to an attorney connected to the case: “During a typical divorce proceeding, the mother used the usual domestic violence accusations to cut dad off from his son. Dad freaked out as he never heard of anything like this before. He appeared before Judge Sunshine, who is a rubber-stamping bureaucrat. He granted an order of protection to [the mother] - as usual - with no proof of any actual violence of any kind. Outraged by the lies, Dmitriy obtained his son for an unsupervised visit and proceeded to go up to the top floor of a West 60th Street building. He flung his son off the top floor and then jumped after the son. The press followed Sunshine's orders. Dad was branded violent and deranged. [The mother] was branded the abused spouse. An important difference between Kanarikov and the typical American is that Americans behave like sheep. We are led around by rings in our noses and no matter how the court behaves, we go along with the scam no matter how absurd. But Russians are far hardier than that, and the mother’s attorney really screwed the pooch. I do not believe Sunshine received any kind of sanctions.” According to another now-retired family court judge: “This Judge was the primary reason that I stopped practicing law, and that is a shame because I used to love being a lawyer and was quite good at it. He forgot where he came from--a Court street lawyer -- like the rest of us trying to make a living in an ever increasing impossible profession. Cases I had before him seemed to be more about him than th

This judge was the only normal person I met during my divorce other than my lawyer and the court attorney. Everyone else is absolutely nuts. Divorce is like a weird surreal alternate reality. I enjoyed listening to his random stories about a conference about indigenous juveniles in upstate NY and the amusing disagreements he and his wife have about the temperature of their house since I think this was strategic in order to brighten and normalize the conversation in the courtroom at least temporarily. I was happy with the outcome and felt everything was equitable and fair. He does not seem to appreciate hyper-aggressive lawyers that just want to instigate conflicts in order to profit from others misery which is great ??

The most inaptly named judge in America, Sunshine is another judge who has presided over the tragic destruction of families. He has somehow risen to the powerful position of “supervising matrimonial judge”, a position he has consolidated by having his own wife, Nancy, appointed as the Kings County Supreme Court chief clerk. The biggest stain on his record is his role in the murder of a three-year-old-child and the suicide of his father, Dmitriy Kanarikov. According to an attorney connected to the case: “During a typical divorce proceeding, the mother used the usual domestic violence accusations to cut dad off from his son. Dad freaked out as he never heard of anything like this before. He appeared before Judge Sunshine, who is a rubber-stamping bureaucrat. He granted an order of protection to [the mother] - as usual - with no proof of any actual violence of any kind. Outraged by the lies, Dmitriy obtained his son for an unsupervised visit and proceeded to go up to the top floor of a West 60th Street building. He flung his son off the top floor and then jumped after the son. The press followed Sunshine's orders. Dad was branded violent and deranged. [The mother] was branded the abused spouse. An important difference between Kanarikov and the typical American is that Americans behave like sheep. We are led around by rings in our noses and no matter how the court behaves, we go along with the scam no matter how absurd. But Russians are far hardier than that, and the mother’s attorney really screwed the pooch. I do not believe Sunshine received any kind of sanctions.” According to another now-retired family court judge: “This Judge was the primary reason that I stopped practicing law, and that is a shame because I used to love being a lawyer and was quite good at it. He forgot where he came from--a Court street lawyer -- like the rest of us trying to make a living in an ever increasing impossible profession. Cases I had before him seemed to be more about him than th

My complaint here is with Justice Ciccotto - whom I believe he oversees. The judge is arrogant - taking litigants to back chambers to make ILLEGAL “ deals “ forcing one party to accept a bad settlement just to try and “ END “ a case. She favors abusive men and yells at litigants like they are criminals. She doesn’t understand kids since she never had any. Please look further into this judge and her abuse of litigants. I will attach an article and YouTube video as well exposing her corruption. Hoping judge sunshine sees this here - as a top matrimonial judge this behavior should not be acceptable. Judge ciccotto needs to be removed/ counseled / admonished. Her behavior is erratic and she is a danger to cases with young children.