"Letter to Editor" Anchorage Daily News B-5 on 11/8/07

"Judicial selection process used in Alaska needs to be changed" As a 17 year licensed Missouri attorney taking more than 15 hours mandatory continuing legal education yearly, I found Jim Minnery's October 27 column "Anonymous survey of lawyers no way to pick state judge" incomplete regarding the Missouri Court Plan.

In Missouri, appointed judges must stand for retention in the next general election after 12 months in office. In Alaska, judges must stand for retention at the first general election held more than two or three years after appointment. This means that some Alaska judges may be in office almost five years, and essentially vest for retirement, before facing voters. The retention process keeps most appointed judges indefinitely in a series of four to 10 year terms. NO wonder Alaska attorneys rush in droves to become judges, who received a 50 percent salary increase last year.

As to voter selection, how many judges have you voted against or do you know are unqualified? The result is no better than anonymous lawyer surveys. We would do as well by throwing darts at the names for judge and doing the same for applicants to the Alaska Bar Association, which finesses entry for relatives of judges and lawyers, Alaska Legal Services, Judge Advocate General officers, foreign law consultants, and out-of-state lawyers who are licensed by "reciprocity" and who never set foot on our soil.

Please check http://www.ajc.state.ak.us about the pending Alaska Supreme Court judicial selection process. Governor Palin should be informed that this process is flawed.

Thomas S. Obermeyer
Anchorage

Note: Governor Sarah Palin appointed Mr. Daniel E. Winfree, current Executive Director & General Counsel, Greater Fairbanks Community Hospital Foundation, Box 71396, Fairbanks, Alaska 99707 (907)458-6465 to Alaska Supreme Court the end of November, 2007. Mr. Winfree, former member and President, Alaska Bar Association Board of Governors, 1992-98, 2000-03, will be sworn in as Justice, Alaska Supreme Court, in January, 2008.