Instilling Public Trust

West Virginians Need a "Judicial Emergency Kit

by Cuz Blake, Chairman of CALA of Northern West Virginia, May 4, 1999

Judges, like all the rest of us, are human. No one is perfect, but we humans generally work together to make the best society we can, sometimes with great success and other times with less success. When we go before a judge, however, we hope we are about to encounter one of the best, most intelligent and fair humans who can be found anywhere.

Now most West Virginia judges are excellent people and excellent judges, but a few recent stories in the newspapers about judges have me a little worried. That's why I have developed a Judicial Emergency Kit for West Virginians just in case the judge they encounter is not who they hoped to find seated behind the bench. Here is what the kit includes:

Nose Guard --- No, not the football position. This is for in case you were unlucky enough to encounter our famous nose-biting judge.

Ear Plugs --- Among those seated on our highest court are some willing to swear loudly in public and official places -- and to swear loudly at public officials. Bring ear plugs if you aren't interested in "swearing in" ceremonies, or if you are, bring along your Dictionary of American Slang to help you understand the "swearing in" and also some "elevator shoes" in case a justice decides to berate you for being of short stature.

Bug Spray --- We expect to find a few insects in the mountain state, but this bug spray is to help prevent judges from bugging law offices, as was done by one West Virginia judge to a spouse's law office.

Boxing Gloves --- West Virginians have seen a member of their highest court get into a fist fight with local law officials, but we feel that "putting on the gloves" is a better option than bare-knuckle jurisprudence.

A Contributions Scorecard --- In our state you need to follow the money, and lots of it. Many of our highest court judges have been elected based upon receiving most of their contributions from the contingency fee lawyers who earn their livings based upon the outcome of cases they bring to West Virginia's courts and judges. With your Scorecard it is helpful to have a pencil - so you can "go figure" why judges are elected on a large volume of contingency fee lawyer contributions. In the 1996 and 1998 state Supreme Court elections, some of the winners received 70 percent or more of their contributions from the personal industry lawsuit industry. So pack up your Judicial Emergency Kit and visit our West Virginia courtrooms. The chances are you will encounter many of our excellent judges, but there is a chance you won't, too.

What do we as citizens do about the West Virginia judges who according to reports in our local newspapers are nose bitin', obscenity hollerin', police punchin', legislator beratin', and office buggin'? Well, the very first thing we could do is to start paying closer attention to our courts and our court officials. We should also start paying attention to how we got into this fix, and how well our current system is working.

Please do your part to make sure we have the best judges and laws by being one of the best of our citizens - the ones who take personal responsibility, keep educated on issues affecting our state, vote and serve on juries. Part of our own education process as active citizens should be to have good information on our public servants and make sure our judges and other public officials are qualified to serve and respected in their home communities.

I suppose most West Virginians probably wish they didn't need a Judicial Emergency Kit

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