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Phil Talmadge chats with BBRC member Jeff Maxwell after Friday’s meeting.
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Retiring Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge brought a program of reform of the judicial system to the
BBRC Friday. A former State Senator from West Seattle and a candidate for Attorney General, he captured a spot on the State’s highest court four years ago and has elected to withdraw when
his terms ends, returning to private law practice.
“The system for selecting judges has some basic flaws,” Judge Talmadge said. “At the Federal level, a judge is
nominated by the Executive Branch and confirmed by the U.S. Senate for a lifetime appointment.” He observed the problem is that the process often
gets caught up in the politics of the moment, with the nomination process held hostage, currently up to two years in many cases.
In Washington State, the Governor appoints a person to fill a vacancy, and
all judges at all levels must stand for election. “The system requires them to campaign, which they are not good at. Still, I am not dissatisfied with
our requirement to elect judges. They just need to conduct better campaigns.”
But, Talmadge warned that there are signs the judicial system is in
remarkable disrepair. “Consider some of these items: Delays caused by clogged calendars means that some Superior Court criminal trials take up
to three years before being heard. Judges are now doing all sorts of silly things such as handling probate and petitions for name changes. There are other mechanisms to handle these issues.”
The Judge cited the legislature for passing all sorts of new bills that
increase workloads without providing the means to carry out their provisions. “A new truancy bill was passed in 1998 to put more teeth in
current law. There were 91 petitions in 1997 … now the courts are handling 16,600 truancy petitions annually. This, while criminal filings are up 17%.”
Obedience to orders of the court is also being threatened because the system can’t handle the enforcement of the orders. “Some 300,000
outstanding warrants are un-enforced today, because the judicial system simply doesn’t have the resources to enforce them. On another note, 80%
of people summoned to jury duty don’t show … and apparently don’t care.”
The use of technology could help to alleviate full court calendars. “There’s
no reason to haul a prisoner down to the County Courthouse for arraignment when it could easily be done by interactive TV. Judges aren’t
comfortable with new technology, but they are going to have to embrace it.”
The State’s judicial system is inefficient. “We are operating with a system
designed over 110 years ago. We need consolidation of our courts, because the bottom line is that we’re not dispensing justice,” Talmadge
warned. “Our public system is losing advocates, the system needs to be managed to become more efficient. The jury system needs to be
reorganized. If we don’t do this, our civil justice system will disappear.”
Thanks to Chuck Kimbrough for his introduction.
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