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Find Better Way to Select Judges

by admin on 09/09/08 at 1:01 pm

The Wheeling Intelligencer
Sep 09, 2008

It is impossible for West Virginians to find a perfect method of selecting judges and state Supreme Court justices. But that does not mean the current system cannot be improved.Legislators pondering the question of how judges and justices are selected heard from a panel of experts in the law this week. The lawmakers were told that flaws exist in any system.

Changes in the way Mountain State judges and justices are selected – in both cases, by election in which candidates are affiliated with political parties – have been suggested. Altering the system could result in fewer conflicts of interest, it has been suggested. At a minimum, nonpartisan elections would give an appearance of fewer conflicts, proponents of that system say. So would appointment of judges, perhaps by the governor, it has been claimed.

One of those testifying before lawmakers was Richard Brisbin, a law professor at West Virginia University. He noted that appointment of judges could result in more, not less, appearance of partisanship. Candidates with political connections would be viewed by the public as having advantages in netting appointments, he explained. And, Brisbin added, the public seems to favor election of judges and justices.

Clearly, merely removing party labels for supposedly nonpartisan elections also is problematic. Many candidates, though claiming to be independents, still would seek and receive support from political parties and special interest groups.

But another expert testifying this week made a very, very important point. Alex Tabarrok, a George Mason University professor, was involved in a comprehensive study of more than 75,000 awards in lawsuits filed throughout the country. Tabarrok said the study found that in cases involving in-state plaintiffs and out-of-state defendants, damage awards were more than 40 percent higher when judges involved were selected in partisan elections, as compared to those picked in nonpartisan elections. In other words, judges affiliated with political parties are more likely to preside over trials in which out-of-state defendants are burned badly.

That alone is reason for legislators to continue looking at West Virginia’s method of selecting judges and high court justices. Lawmakers should not merely declare that the current system cannot be improved upon. They should continue investigating the matter in an attempt to find a better way.