Tennessee’s “current judicial selection process is a perfect storm of special interest control, closed government and lack of accountability,” says Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey in a well-argued oped in the Tri-City News (TN). Ramsey clearly spells out the problems with judicial selection Star Chambers – not just in Tennessee, but in all states that […]
L. Gordon Crovitz has a good piece in today’s Wall Street Journal that navigates the thinking behind the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to reduce the $2.5 billion punitive damage award against Exxon for the Valdez spill nearly 20 years ago and establish some principle to guide future cases. “We should cheer,” Crovitz writes, […]
Dickie Scruggs, who gained fame and considerable fortune in the 1990s for his part in suing large corporations for billions, was sentenced today to five years in prison for conspiracy to bribe a judge. Scruggs’ son will be sentenced next week for his role in this family affair.
There are a lot of lessons one could […]
An Arizona law requiring that expert witnesses in medical malpractice trials actually be experts in the field they’re testifying about has been struck down in appellate court.
The law had clearly sought to end the abuse of “professional witness” doctors who make a lucrative career testifying in medical malpractice trials at the behest of trial lawyer […]
A Detroit News editorial demolishes a bogus fall ballot initiative being circulated by an outfit called Reform Michigan Government Now. Although cloaked in good government language, the News reports, the “real thrust of the [proposed constitutional] amendment appears to be getting at state judges with GOP backgrounds” in a “power grab of this state’s […]
Citizens of Johnson County, Kansas have successfully placed an initiative on the November ballot that would end the secret selection of judges (through a so-called “merit” system) and allow voters to decide who sits on the bench. Justice At Stake’s GavelGrab blog links to a story in the St. Charles County Business Record reporting […]
The St. Paul Pioneer Press wades into the judicial selection debate with an editorial endorsing the replacement of democratic elections for judges with so-called “merit selection” combined with uncontested retention elections.
Unlike Minnesota’s Chief Justice Eric Magnuson, the Pioneer Press at least had the tact not to question “the insight and sophistication” of Minnesota voters, but […]
Does “merit selection” – where lawyers meet in secret to decide who wears the black robes – take politics out of judicial appointments? Not according to Paul Jacob, who runs Missouri’s “merit” plan through the wringer in an excellent piece in Human Events and shows just how political this allegedly non-political system can be.
Jacob […]
A group of plaintiffs’ lawyers are in a Manhattan federal courtroom today asking a judge to approve a settlement in a class action lawsuit that will allow them to reap $1.3 million in fees compared to $5 to $35 each for the class members, The New York Times reports.
The class action was filed against video […]
West Virginia seems to be an annual fixture on the American Tort Reform Association’s list of Judicial Hellholes — and one of the reasons has been the widespread dissemination of junk science in the state’s courtrooms. An article in the West Virginia Record chronicles some of the worst junk science abuses and suggests a […]
