After nearly three decades of handing down verdicts from a television bench, Judy Sheindlin is done with the robe. The 83-year-old former prosecutor and Manhattan family court judge — Judge Judy to generations of daytime viewers — turned televised small claims disputes into an institution, and she will close out her on-camera courtroom career when her Amazon Prime Video series “Judy Justice” finishes its run in October.
Retirement is not the word her camp uses. “She is not retiring, just rewiring,” a representative said. Sheindlin remains a producer, and she is developing “Judyverse,” an animated project built around the AI-generated “Baby Judge Judy” clips that have circulated online. The robe and the gavel are what she is setting aside, along with the daily grind of sitting in front of a camera — in other words, the part audiences actually see.
The family keeps the work. Her son, Judge Adam Levy, launched his own syndicated courtroom series, “Adam’s Law,” on Monday, September 14, 2026, almost exactly three decades after “Judge Judy” first aired. Sheindlin created the show and serves as its executive producer, and like “Judy Justice” it takes on small claims cases.
Sheindlin spelled out her reasoning in a new interview with PEOPLE. “I don’t want to do hair and makeup anymore, but I still want my message to get out there,” she said.
From Family Court to the Top of Daytime
Sheindlin started out in 1972 as a prosecutor in New York’s family court system. Mayor Ed Koch appointed her a criminal court judge in 1982, and four years later she took over as supervising judge of the family court’s Manhattan division. She heard more than 20,000 cases there before retiring from the bench in 1996.
That September brought the premiere of “Judge Judy,” which ran 25 seasons before ending in July 2021. Audiences made the syndicated half-hour the ruler of daytime ratings, and it regularly pulled nine to 10 million viewers a day. Her rulings made her a household name, and so did her willingness to cut a litigant off mid-excuse. She became the highest-paid woman on television.
The same year her original show signed off, she was back on the bench, launching “Judy Justice” that November. Streaming brought a new format along with it, but not a new personality. Her unvarnished manner, the one that had carried her through syndication, came along intact.
Passing the Gavel to Her Son
Courtrooms have taken up Levy’s working life, and television studios have claimed more of it recently. Hofstra Law School granted him his law degree in 1992, and two terms as district attorney in Putnam County, New York, followed, from 2008 through 2015. Prime Video’s “Tribunal Justice,” a panel-based court show, has seated him as one of its judges since 2023; three seasons there came before he landed a bench of his own.
Public vouching for him has come from his mother. “There aren’t a lot of people who can carry a half hour on their own unscripted,” she told PEOPLE. “He has what it takes.” She cast the handoff as a matter of timing: “Maybe eight years ago he wasn’t ready. He’s ready now.”
Off camera, mother and son stay close. Levy calls her a “tough cookie,” and when filming brings him to town, he has dinner with her in Connecticut. His own method on the bench, he says, is a plain one: “Everyone has their chance to speak, but you better be able to back up your position.”
Naps, Family and an Animated Judge
“I have a lot of other things of interest,” Sheindlin said, and for a woman who spent three decades on television, the list is refreshingly unglamorous: more time with family, and afternoon naps.
The production work carries on. Besides “Adam’s Law,” there is “Judyverse,” the animated project that grew out of the AI-created clips that spread across social media. A toddler version of Sheindlin runs a courtroom in those clips, speaking in a New York accent and snapping off the sort of pointed remarks long associated with her adult counterpart. Neither a network nor a release date has been announced.
Her public life has sometimes taken her beyond the courtroom set. In 2024, Sheindlin endorsed Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley and campaigned on her behalf. “I’m proud to endorse Nikki Haley because she is whip smart, has executive credentials and was a superb governor,” she said at the time. Haley answered: “Judge Judy is a no-nonsense lady who has earned the respect of millions of Americans from her courtroom by being thoughtful, fair, and honest. I’m honored to have her support.”
Network television will give her career a formal send-off before “Judy Justice” signs off. CBS is scheduled to air a 30th anniversary special, “Judge Judy: Unfiltered, Unforgettable,” a look back at her career and the cultural footprint she left across decades of daytime television.
The changeover is a tidy one, with the family name attached to both ends of it: one Sheindlin production premieres while another winds toward its close. “Judy Justice” airs its final episodes in October. “I don’t think that I’ve ever been this content before,” Sheindlin told PEOPLE.
