New Judges.

December 13, 2006 by hsdavis.

This will be a theoretical ramble followed by a practical observation.

First, folks have debated for years whether it makes sense to elect judges. There are arguments pro and con, but if you don’t trust the the governor to appoint the best and brightest, then the only real alternative is to have elections. There are, of course downsides.

The skill set to be an effective (elected) polictician is by no means congruent with the skill set to be a fair, efficient judge. Indeed, running for political office and being a judge are just about opposite in terms of the personality types involved. Even more particularly, to be elected you have to be very staunchly allied with one political party or another, and much of being a fair judge is being rather ambivalent about such things.

In Collin County, arguably the most Republican county in the state, nearly all political contests are settled in the primary. The exception is that sometimes they’re settled in the runoff of the primary. This year we’ll have two new judges that handle divorces. Judge Betty Caton decided to retire, and John Roach, Jr. will be taking her place. Judge Nathan White also retired from the bench and Greg Brewer will be taking his place.

I don’t think Denton County had any changes in their district courts.

The big story is Dallas County. All (or almost all) Family District Judges in Dallas were Republicans. Dallas County has suddenly become predominately Democratic. I believe that every Family District Judge in Dallas that was up for election was defeated by a Democrat, except for one. And, only about half the judges were up for election (they serve 4-year terms, and about half of them are up for election every other year). So we have 3 new Family District Judges in Dallas County.

(In Denton and Collin Counties, the courts are all general jurisdiction: the judges handle criminal, family, and civil matters. In Dallas county, the courts are specialized: there are a lot more courts, but only 7 that handle divorces: Family District Courts).

It’s said that a good lawyer knows the law, but a great lawyer knows the judge. That doesn’t mean that you know them socially, but that you have a good feel for how a judge would likely react to a given fact situation. Being predictable is a good thing for a judge. Cases are more likely to settle out of court if the lawyers have a pretty good feel for how the judge would rule. But with so many new judges on the bench, it’s just a whole lot harder giving good advice to your clients about whether or not to make or take a settlement offer from the other side.

In my particular situation, about the only thing I frequently ask the judges to do is approve an office proveup. It just so happened that nearly every judge that had been telling me “no” is being replaced by a new judge. So, while we have yet to see what the new year brings, my best guess is that a higher percentage of my clients will be able to wrap up their divorces in the privacy of my office.

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