Legal News

Voters don't know much about judicial candidates, says legal community

By Jason Siegel

The public arbitrarily decides which judicial candidates to vote for, members of the Los Angeles legal community told the Whittier Daily News. 

Most people make uninformed decisions on who to vote for, Brent Braun, a member of Los Angeles Bar Association committee that rates candidates, told the newspaper.

Some of the challenges include lack of information to voters - it costs $83,000 for a candidate to put a n informational statement on the ballot. Some candidates told the Whittier Daily News that they are, instead, sending mailings to people who consistently show up at the polls.

The challenges to judicial impartiality and accountability that are being discussed at the Commission for Impartial Courts, who are a third of the way through their 18 month mandate to make recommendations for change.

?The manner in which judges are selected, retained, and removed from office can have a serious impact on the independence of the judiciary," California Chief Justice Ronald George, who formed to commission, said in a press release. "It is essential that we make every effort to avoid politicizing the judiciary so that public confidence in the quality, impartiality, and accountability of judges is protected and maintained."

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on May 14, 2008 (boomark / email).