With over $5 million dollars spent towards the only open seat on the Alabama Supreme Court, our state reportedly had the most expensive high court race this year.  As a result of the money spent in his home state as well as other states, the current American Bar Association President and local Birmingham attorney H. Thomas Wells Jr. recently released the following press release:

ABA President H. Thomas Wells Jr. Decries Expensive 2008 State Judicial Races, Offers New Support for State Courts 

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 6, 2008 – We need courts that are fair and impartial in order to have equal treatment under the law and protect our personal freedoms. Fair and impartial courts are threatened in states such as Alabama, my home and the site of this year’s most expensive state supreme court race. In states like these, the system sets up its judges to rely on campaign contributions from interests that argue before the courts.

Judges should be accountable to the law and the Constitution, not the whims of the day or to popular public opinion. We urge citizens in states under the grip of increasingly costly court races to band together and find solutions that remove the potential influence of money from our courts. 

One of the ways in which the ABA is mobilizing to better support state courts is by organizing the Summit on Fair and Impartial State Courts, scheduled for May 2009 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Each state supreme court chief justice is being asked to form a delegation that represents the state’s supreme court, legislature, and executive branch, bar associations and non-governmental citizen organizations. This diverse, national group of leaders will collaborate on plans for promoting fair and impartial courts that are empowered to serve the public. The summit will highlight strategies for good inter-branch relations, so that courts have the resources they need to provide fair and impartial resolution of disputes.

As of Wednesday morning with 94 percent of the precincts reporting, the most expensive Supreme Court race in the nation was neck and neck. Greg Shaw, a Republican, edged his Democrat opponent, Deborah Bell Paseur, be a mere 1 percent. After jointly spending a reported $5.1 million, they may be headed for a recount. If Shaw wins, it will leave only one Democrat on the nine-member court. The race for the only Alabama Court of Civil Appeals seat was not quite as close. Two-term incumbent Bill Thompson defeated Kimberly Drake with 56 percent of the vote. This means this five member court will remain completely Republican. Since the Court of Civil Appeals has original jurisdiction over workers’ compensation appeals, this constitutes good news for Alabama employers.

In 1992, after many concessions from both trial lawyers and business interests, the Alabama Legislature passed the Workers' Compensation Reform Act of 1992. The goal was to reduce business costs, minimize future rate increases and deliver higher benefits to workers.  Despite the passage of these broad sweeping changes, the Alabama Appellate Courts of the 90's interpreted the statutes liberally which effectually neutered them.  Business groups in Alabama got tired of having their hard work in the legislature overturned by activist courts.  As such, they set their sights on the State Appellate Court elections. The Alabama Supreme Court and the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals are now comprised of a conservative majority and the law is finally being applied as the legislature originally intended.  The price tag? Two years ago, candidates in the race for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court raised $7.3 million in direct contributions, making it the most expensive court race in America in 2006 and the second most expensive judicial campaign in U.S. history.  It was also the most expensive court race ever in Alabama.  Fast forward 2 years and we are in the thick of the 2008 fund raising and campaigning efforts of Republican Greg Shaw and Democrat Deborah Bell Paseur.  Contributions have already passed the $1.1 million mark. That amount will likely increase a great deal by the time the November 4th election day arrives.