« Ind. Decisions - 7th Circuit issues Illinois election decision that references Indiana | Main | Ind. Courts - Information about appellate jurists on the November ballot »

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Ind. Courts - "Group calls for merit selection of Lake County judges"

John Byrne of the Gary Post-Tribune reports:

Representatives of the Lake County Bar Association and local officials will testify Friday before the state Commission on Courts to explain why County Division judges in Lake County should be chosen by merit, rather than popular election.

Critics of elected judges have argued the four County Division judges -- Nicholas Schiralli, Julie Cantrell, Jesse Villalpando and Sheila Moss -- maintain large, expensive staffs of public defenders to help finance their re-election campaigns.

Some also say the judges' appearance of impartiality is compromised by the fact they must be elected.

Cantrell herself will testify about the need to change to a merit system, where judges are selected by a local panel from a list of nominees submitted by the governor.

Bill Dolan of the NWI Times reports:
Scott Yahne, president of the Lake County Bar Association, said Wednesday his organization, which represents many of the county's lawyers, supports including the four courts in the county's merit selection system, which ensures judges' decisions will be independent of political influence.

Lake County is one of two counties in the state in which most Superior Court judges are nominated by a panel of lawyers and lay people and appointed to office by the governor. They face the voters every six years in nonpartisan retention-rejection referendums.

Here is the agenda for tomorrow's meeting of the Commission on Courts. On the agenda, in addition to "(3) Merit selection of judges of the Lake Superior Court County Division," is another item, "(2) Selection of judges in St. Joseph County."

This should be interesting, as the Lake group is urging that the remaining judges in Lake County be made merit, while in the only other county in Indiana with merit selection of judges, the Commission on Courts is charged with considering:

D. Whether judges in St. Joseph County should be selected by election or appointment and if the selection process is changed, how should it be changed and how should the changes be implemented (SEA 329-2008 - SEC. 25, p. 23)

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 2, 2008 07:55 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts