Texas' chief justice calls for overhaul of state courts
It should also examine the growing use of private dispute resolution to settle legal disputes outside the public courts, Jefferson insisted.  "The outcomes in a private system need not be consistent," he said, warning that injustice can result because "appellate review is virtually nonexistent." In addition, he cautioned, "a privately litigated matter may well affect public rights. Its resolution may ultimately harm the public good or, because those decisions are secret, impede an innovation to a recurring problem, much to the detriment of Texas citizens."

Texas' chief justice calls for overhaul of state courts

Jefferson says 'patchwork' system should be reviewed, streamlined.

By By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Texas' top judge called today for a sweeping top-to-bottom review of the state courts system, from municipal to supreme, suggesting that changes need to be made in the complex patchwork of justice.

In remarks before a joint session of the Legislature, Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson said representatives from the three branches of government should work together to reorganize the each level of the judicial system for greater consistency.

"Texas' patchwork court system has developed over many decades, resulting in a current structure that has gone from elaborate to Byzantine," he said in his biennial State of the Judiciary speech, quoting a 2005 decision by the high court.

Jefferson called on the Legislature to simplify the current system of trial courts and start "examining whether Texans are best served by the current — and often redundant — complex system of county courts at law, district courts and statutory probate courts, or whether streamlining some of these courts may create a simpler system."

In a state whose court system, in structure, looks much like it did a century ago, such a call for sweeping reforms — even the suggestion that they be considered — is a rarity, especially by a chief justice. But Jefferson insisted the time is right for just such a review.

In all, Texas has more than 3,000 courts — from municipal, justice of the peace and small claims to district, probate and appellate, more than other states.

Jefferson said the review should look at overlapping jurisdictions that create confusion for litigants and "the risk of conflicting rulings in a single area" and the fact that some counties have multiple judicial districts while others share one district with surrounding counties.

It should also examine the growing use of private dispute resolution to settle legal disputes outside the public courts, Jefferson insisted.

"The outcomes in a private system need not be consistent," he said, warning that injustice can result because "appellate review is virtually nonexistent."

In addition, he cautioned, "a privately litigated matter may well affect public rights. Its resolution may ultimately harm the public good or, because those decisions are secret, impede an innovation to a recurring problem, much to the detriment of Texas citizens."

Jefferson also called for lawmakers to review other changes: specialized business courts to handle complex commercial litigation, new policies to put mentally ill people in treatment rather than in jail or prison, the creation of a special state commission to review innocence claims of prison convicts, continued funding for programs that provide lawyers for defendants who have no money to hire their own.

The chief justice also called for the Legislature to establish a new commission to review judicial salaries, to ensure they remain competitive with private law firms.

Two years ago, amid warnings by Jefferson in a similar speech that judges were quitting too frequently because of low pay, lawmakers gave state judges their first raise in several years. Much of Jefferson's proposal seemed to parallel the reform platform being pushed by Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a lobby group with considerable political clout, though Jefferson said his were unrelated.

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