Attempted judicial coup
In the last session of the Texas Legislature our Supreme Court pushed for authority to send a judge of its choice to any jurisdiction in Texas if it determined that there was a case of "complex litigation". This action would be without the consent of the local judge. For this reason, unprecedented power would be given to judges in Austin to usurp the power of our locally elected judges in cases of importance. Once again, the powers with the money to elect state-wide supreme court judges, (the insurance industry), would increase their advantage on our local courts and the determinations of conflicts among local parties. Trial judges; the Texas Trial Lawyers Association: the Texas Association of Defense Counsel; and the American Board of Trial Advocates came out against this unusual and scary proposal. The Texas Legislature overwhelmingly rejected the legislation. Once again the power play raises its ugly head as the judges on our Supreme Court try to gain this power through the back door as reflected below:
“Based on discussions with Justice Hecht, Chip Babcock, as Chair of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee, has asked our Subcommittee to develop a proposed rule for dealing with ‘complex cases.’ As you may be aware, the Texas Legislature considered such a proposal as part of Senate Bill 1204 during the recent 80th Legislative Session, but that bill did not pass. The Court would now like to consider alternatives for enacting such a proposal as a Court rule, in the absence of a legislative mandate.”
http://www.bailey-law.com/lawyer-attorney-1215835.html
Hi! I just found this forum and it looks really cool.
Now, I gotta run off and read some posts. :)