Inadmissible

Chris Bertini was one of the 100 solo and small firm lawyers from Galveston displaced by Hurricane Ike, several of whom we visited in October as part of “Storm Town,” an article about attorneys rebuilding their practices after their law offices were destroyed. [See Texas Lawyer, Nov. 3, 2008, page 1.]. At that time Bertini, a plaintiff’s lawyer in Bertini & Associates , was working to rebuild his space in the two-story, historic 1894 Lalor Building on Market Street, which had been flooded by six feet of water. Bertini says contractors are putting the finishing touches on his building, and he’ll soon be back on Market Street, sitting behind his desk for the first time in six months. “I’ll probably move back in next week. We’ve got to make sure the concrete floors are dry,” Bertini says. While Ike did massive damage to his law office, it had no effect on the business that came through it, he says. “I’m fortunate. I haven’t lost business. And we have close to 100 Ike cases,” Bertini says. “It’s a combination of representing home owners and business owners on all types of insurance claims.”

Justices Jousting

Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson took his campaign to change the state’s judicial election system to Dallas on March 17, when he squared off against former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Harold See Jr. in a debate before a meeting of the Federalist Society. The topic: the merits of having voters choose jurists. Jefferson took the side of tossing out the traditional partisan elected system, while See supported keeping it. And you better believe Jefferson had home court advantage for this game. See was a worthy adversary who stated his case that the people must have a voice in judicial election. Otherwise, we’d have no way to throw out so-called “activist judges” who rule on what they believe is right instead of on the law, See says. An appointed system, in which a governor presumably consults with lawyers to find qualified candidates, lends itself to cronyism, he says. “If that’s a reason to appoint judges, then why don’t we get five lawyers to select a state representative?” See says. While See had theories about why elections are better, Jefferson came to the fight armed with real Texas examples of why they are not. He pointed to the general election in 2006 when more than 40 Republican judges lost their trial court benches in Dallas County because of a political and demographic shift. And he pointed to the near sweep of trial court benches by Democrats in Harris County in the 2008 general election for the same reason. He highlighted the three Democratic trial court candidates in Harris County who didn’t win their elections because, arguably, they had uncommon names. “That, to me, is an irrational system,” Jefferson says. Jefferson said he spent money on television ads targeting Harris County voters that played up his inspiring family history (Jefferson is the descendant of slaves), hoping to reach out to supporters of Barack Obama. What did that get him? Nada. He lost Harris County with 48 percent of the vote. After the debate, Jefferson said in an interview that it’s still going to be tough to get rid of Texas’ current judicial election system. “It’s a long road,” Jefferson says. “We’ve been electing judges for a long time, and people are used to it. But now you’ve got more people saying ‘This is insane.’”

School Prayer