Joseph A. Wapner, a retired California judge whose flinty-folksy style of resolving disputes on the show “The People’s Court” helped spawn an entire genre of courtroom-based reality television with no-nonsense jurists and often clueless litigants, died Feb. 26 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 97.
A grandson, Gabriel Wapner, confirmed the death but did not know the immediate cause. Judge Wapner had several strokes in recent years.
