Former bar chief praises state's judge process

The immediate past president of the American Bar Association and a lawyer who practices in Birmingham said the Alabama legal community looks with "envy" at Tennessee's often-contested plan for the merit selection of appellate judges.

H. Thomas Wells Jr. fielded questions from the Chattanooga Times Free Press editorial boards Thursday morning, talking about everything from the election of judges and the challenges of confirming U.S. Supreme Court justices to the lack of legal aid for poor people.

The ABA, which Mr. Wells headed for a year, is the largest lawyer organization in the country with 400,000 members and conducts peer reviews and informs policy in the legal profession.

"I will tell you from a personal standpoint that those of us in Alabama who have partisan elections of judges look at Tennessee with a great deal of envy with how you select your Supreme Court judges through a merit selection plan. I certainly hope you don't do away with it," Mr. Wells said.

Alabama has long used the partisan election of judges who sit on its state appellate courts, something Mr. Wells characterized as a "broken system" that even Alabama's chief Supreme Court justice does not agree with. Mr. Wells said that "merit selection is much preferable to election" in order to keep politics out of what should be an impartial justice system.

He said the American Bar Association endorses the "Tennessee Plan" for its merit selection of appellate judges, although detractors say the plan is a violation of the state constitution, which calls for the election of appellate judges.

Despite loud outcries, the Tennessee General Assembly earlier this year reinstated the plan.

Mr. Wells also discussed:

n Confirming U.S. Supreme Court justices

The ABA supports a "speedier" confirmation process for justices, he said.

"We believe confirmations have taken too long," he said. "There has been too much contention. Some have become overtly and bitterly partisan."

n Medical malpractice tort reform

The ABA is opposed to the federal capping of monetary awards in medical malpractice claims, according to Mr. Wells. There is no empirical data, Mr. Wells said, to indicate that insurance rates are connected to medical malpractice recoveries.

"It's really an insurance crisis rather than a medical malpractice crisis," Mr. Wells said. "(Insurance rates for doctors) will keep going up if insurance companies aren't making money, regardless of malpractice suits."

n Legal aid crisis

The ABA "has been lobbying Congress for years" to get more funding for the federal legal aid program, Mr. Wells said, which he noted is crippled even more in the current economic crisis.

"Unfortunately, in a recession legal needs don't go down, they go up," Mr. Wells said.

Only those who live at or below the national poverty line qualify for free legal aid, but inadequate funding means that most people never get it, according to legal aid advocates in Tennessee.