Ousting of Superior Court judge upsets state's legal community

[question everything]

Ousting of Superior Court judge upsets state's legal community

ASSOCIATED PRESS

June 9, 2006

LOS ANGELES – Dzintra Janavs is a highly regarded, 20-year Superior Court judge who was endorsed by the district attorney and sheriff and was rated “exceptionally well qualified” by the county Bar Association. Lynn Diane Olson is a bagel store owner who had barely practiced law during the past decade and was called “not qualified” by the association.

In a development that shocked and dismayed the legal community, Olson defeated Janavs in Tuesday's election by almost 8 percentage points. Judge Terry Friedman, president of the California Judges Association, said he knew of only two other instances in the past 30 years in which a sitting jurist was voted out of office.

(snip)

Janavs, 69, attributed her loss to being outspent by Olson, 42, who pumped about $100,000 of her money into the race. Janavs reported about $42,000 in contributions by May 20. “Let me put it this way, my reaction is: Money can buy anything,” Janavs said.

Olson dismissed her “not qualified” rating, saying she chose not to meet with bar officials. “When have they ever not endorsed a sitting judge?” said Olson, a Democrat.


Find this article at:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060609/news_1n9judge.html

[musiclawyer]

1. In CA Superior Court Judges are lame mostly

and lazy. In California, judgeships can be bought, as shown in the article, but mostly they are the result of political patronage, not skill, not intelligence, not experience. It's very different in the federal courts, where a prospective district judge, political connections aside, must demonstrate a threshold of competence. If lay people only knew how bad the quality of superior court judging is they would be appalled.