Litigation

Judicial Vacancies in Delaware

By Francis G. X. Pileggi, Esq.

One of the judges on the Delaware Superior Court is retiring and the Judicial Nominating Commission has sent three names to the Governor for a replacement. Once the Governor selects from those names, the Delaware Senate is expected to hold confirmation hearings next month. The Superior Court is the trial court of general jurisdiction in Delaware that often handles commercial disputes that are outside the limited jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery.

In addition, there has been an empty seat on the United States District Court for the District of Delaware since 2006. Due to Congressional wrangling, and their apparent focus on other issues, no replacement is expected imminently to return that bench to full strength. A wag might suggest the comparison of the relative alacrity employed by the Delaware system to maintain its judiciary  at full strength, with the relative torpor that the federal system has applied to address the vacancy on the local federal court, as an example of what one might expect if Congress were to exercise its power to control more aspects of corporate law that are currently governed by Delaware jurisprudence.

Celia Cohen on her Delaware Grapevine site has a story here about the three people on the short list for the Superior Courr position, and here is her article about the frontrunner to fill the open seat on the federal bench.

Full post as published by Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog on December 19, 2009 (boomark / email).