Catherine Crier

Biography

An Emmy and duPont-Columbia Award-winning journalist, and the youngest state judge to ever be elected in Texas, Catherine Crier is now a managing partner in Cajole Entertainment developing television, film and documentary projects.

Crier, a native of Dallas, earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and international affairs from the University of Texas and received a Juris Doctor in two and a half years from Southern Methodist University School of Law. She began her career in law in 1978 as an Assistant District Attorney then Felony Chief Prosecutor for the Dallas County District Attorney`s office. From 1982 to 1984, Crier was a civil litigation attorney with Riddle & Brown, handling complex business and corporate matters. In 1984, she was elected to the 162nd District Court in Dallas County, Texas as a State District Judge. During her tenure on the bench, Crier also served as Administrative Judge for the Civil District Courts and worked extensively with the ABA, National Judicial College, and Texas Legislature on legal issues. Shortly after her reelection (unopposed) to a second term on the bench, a chance meeting with a television news executive led to a dramatic career change.

In September, 1989, Crier was hired to co-anchor the premiere evening newscast on CNN. Additionally, she co-anchored Inside Politics, all election coverage, and hosted Crier & Company, a talk show covering news, politics and international issues.

Crier joined ABC News in 1993, where she served as a correspondent and as a regular substitute anchor for Peter Jennings on ABC`s World News Tonight, as well as a substitute host for Ted Koppel`s Nightline. She also worked as a correspondent on 20/20, the network`s primetime news magazine program. Crier was awarded a 1996 Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism for her work on the segment "The Predators" which examined nursing home abuses throughout the United States.

In October of `96, Crier became one of the founding television anchors for the Fox News Channel, with her prime time program, The Crier Report, a live, hour-long nightly show, during which she interviewed the leading newsmakers of the day. Additionally, she co-anchored the evening news, election coverage and Fox Files, a magazine news show aired on the parent network.

Catherine joined Court TV`s distinguished team of anchors in November 1999. She served as Executive Editor, Legal News Specials, in addition to hosting Catherine Crier Live, a fast-paced, live daily series, covering the day`s "front-page" stories, until joining Cajole Entertainment in 2007.

Crier, a Texas-bred independent with a spirited passion for justice, released her first book, the New York Times Bestseller, The Case Against Lawyers in October, 2002. In this eye-opening and plain-spoken treatise on the law, Crier shares her outrage at the state of the justice system and calls on American citizens to demand reform. Her second book, A Deadly Game: The Untold Story of the Scott Peterson Investigation was released in March, 2005 and became a #1 New York Times bestseller. Her third book, Contempt -- How the Right is Wronging American Justice, was published in September, 2006, and Final Analysis: The Untold Story of the Susan Polk Murder Case was released in March, 2007.

She is involved with many organizations and serves on several boards, including Soldiers For The Truth, dedicated to objective military reporting and assistance to America`s troops, PAX, an organization working to reduce gun violence in America that targets the nation`s children and the NY Law School Committee on Media and Law. Crier lives in Westchester County, New York. In her free time, she raises and trains Arabian Horses and enjoys playing golf and exploring the world.

Publications

The Case Against Lawyers: How the Lawyers, Politicians, and Bureaucrats Have Turned the Law into an Instrument of Tyranny -- and What We as Citizens Have to Do About It

As a child, Catherine Crier was enchanted by film portrayals of crusading lawyers like Clarence Darrow and Atticus Finch. As a district attorney, private lawyer, and judge herself, she saw firsthand how the U.S. justice system worked-and didn`t. One of the most respected legal journalists and commentators today, she now confronts a profoundly unfair legal system that produces results and profits for the few-and paralysis, frustration, and injustice for the many. The dire prediction of Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America has come true: Americans have ceded their responsibility as citizens to resolve the problems of society by themselves to a lawyer-controlled authority-and with it our precious democratic freedoms.

The Case Against Lawyers is both an angry indictment and an eloquent plea for a return to common sense. It decries a system of laws so complex even the enforcers-such as the IRS-cannot understand them. It unmasks a litigation-crazed society where billion-dollar judgments mostly line the pockets of personal injury lawyers. It deplores the stupidity of a system of liability that leads to such results as a label on a stroller that warns, `Remove child before folding." It indicts a criminal justice system that puts minor drug offenders away for life yet allows celebrity murderers to walk for free. And it excoriates the sheer corruption of the iron triangle of lawyers, bureaucrats and politicians who profit mightily from all this inefficiency, injustice, and abuse.

The Case Against Lawyers will make readers hopping mad. And it will make them realize that the only response can be to demand change, NOW.

Titles

The Supreme Court and You
A controversial yet enlightening discussion of the Supreme Court, its power and influence, and the role of politics within the nation`s third branch of government. The Supreme Court and You will reveal the backstage maneuvering, the political strategizing and the extraordinary influence these nine justices have over our every day lives.

Behind the Bench -- Big Trials of the 21st Century
This talk is based on the many dramatic cases Ms. Crier has covered. Crier will take you behind the scenes of some of the biggest trials in recent memory including: Scott Peterson, Michael Jackson, Robert Blake, Phil Spector, Michael Skakel, David Westerfield and Winona Ryder. Crier also examines the extraordinary changes in recent years and the important role of television and the media in initiating and sustaining these events.

The World is Watching
Examines the extraordinary changes in recent years and the important role of television and the media in initiating and sustaining these events.

Government and Politics in the 21st Century
Questions who really governs in the emerging global society. Catherine evaluates the status and future of citizenship and democracy in the new millennium.

You Make a Difference
Empowering the individual in a society that often discourages leadership, creativity and assertiveness is the focus of her remarks in You Make a Difference.

Examining Current Events
This is a timely look at the domestic and international scene with historical context and political analysis to better understand this moment in history and where the future may lead.

The Case Against Lawyers
Based on her new book Crier passionately speaks on how the lawyers, politicians, and bureaucrats have turned the law into an instrument of tyranny-and what we as citizens have to do about it.