FORT WORTH, Texas _ In six seasons of small-claims-court cases on daytime TV, Kevin Ross of "America's Court With Judge Ross" has pretty much seen and heard it all.
Another dispute over an unpaid debt. Another "who's to blame?" fender bender. Another broken engagement that results in bickering over who gets to keep the ring.
Been there, done all of that.
Yet Ross, who was in Fort Worth last week, says these cases never get boring.
"On paper, these kinds of cases are pretty cut and dried," he says. "But if you look at the stories underneath, if you get to know the people involved, there's almost always something interesting, and surprising, going on."
That's why "America's Court" has proved to be popular with viewers.
Ross offers an example of one crazy case that is seared into his memory.
"We had a woman whose fiance had spent time in jail and, when he got out, she wanted a grand wedding," Ross remembers. "That grand wedding included making her child part of the ceremony.
"So she decided to sew a compartment into the back of her wedding gown that would allow the child to be dragged along on the train. She had this vision. She was so confident: 'This is going to be great.'
"But then people on social media were like, 'Jesus, take the wheel here! What kind of idiot would drag her baby behind her on the train?'"
Let's just say the get-up was a total train wreck.
The boutique dress designer, who was hoping for positive comments and an influx of customers, insisted she had no idea the bride would do this to the gown. The designer sued for the damage to her reputation and the loss of business _ and they wound up in "America's Court."
"You can't make that stuff up," Ross says. "The personalities make this show what it is."
Ross is a former California Superior Court judge and a former talk-radio personality, so he's uniquely suited in both aspects to serve on the "America's Court" bench.
The show premiered in September 2010 and will begin its seventh season in the fall.
"When I started, my expectation was that I thought I could do the job of being a daytime courtroom judge personality," he says. "I was hoping to be on the air three, four, five seasons. I didn't want to be 'one and done.'
"But daytime television is really difficult. We have seen many amazingly talented people _ Katie Couric, Meredith Vieira, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, Nate Berkus, Anderson Cooper, Jeff Probst _ go to the daytime space to try to have a show. After one or two years, they're gone.
"Evidently, people like what we're doing and appreciate the work we put into it. I enjoy it, it's a great fit for my skill set and the audience seems to be responding."
Ross makes no bones about it. First and foremost, the goal is to entertain viewers.
"But having gone to law school, having been a prosecutor, having been a judge and having a very passionate perspective on the law, I try to drop little bits of knowledge into the batter," he says. "When I meet people who tell me they learned something watching the show, that's the best compliment I can get."
