As a “Country Lawyer” with over 38 years of experience, I tend to indentify with practicing attorneys not part of the Atlanta “Silk Stocking Firms”. …………………… I have already voted for Mike Sheffield by absentee ballot and recommend his candidacy.

AVOC

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October 14, 2008

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AVOC supports Attorney Mike Sheffield for Georgia Court of Appeals

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By Wendell Dawson, Editor, AVOC, Inc

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AVOC had not planned to endorse a candidate for Court of Appeals.   However, a number of friends, readers and associates have asked my opinion.

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The only candidate I personally know is Mike Sheffield, Attorney from Lawrenceville.   A friend that I trust referred me to him on a Gwinnett County matter in the past.   My dealings with him were pleasant and he seemed competent.   He was almost elected to the court of appeals in 2004.

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As a “Country Lawyer” with over 38 years of experience, I tend to indentify with practicing attorneys not part of the Atlanta “Silk Stocking Firms”.    To me, many of our judges of today do not seem to know much about the areas of law in which I have mostly practiced.   Many specialists are now becoming Judges and deal with all kinds of legal issues.   That lack of General Practice experience is not good when you have a case before the court.

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I have already voted for Mike Sheffield by absentee ballot and recommend his candidacy.

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Mike Sheffield

Internet Info Sources on Court of Appeals Candidates

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What’s Goin On?

http://www.whatisgoinon.com/podcast/2008/09/24/mike-sheffield-candidate-for-georgia-court-of-appeals/

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September 24, 2008 (Podcast)

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 Mike Sheffield, Candidate for Georgia Court of Appeals

Posted by Wilson R. Smith, Attorney at Law

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Mike Sheffield is a criminal defense attorney from Lawrenceville, Georgia. I don’t know of any type of legal practice that is more stressful than defending people accussed of crimes. Many of them are guilty, but some of them are innocent, and they all need good, competent representation. Mike estimated that he had tried more than 300 jury trials and handled at least 60 appeals to either the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court of Georgia.

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This is not Mike’s first statewide campaign. As he explains in his interview he ran in 2004 for the position on the Georgia Court of Appeals now held by Judge Debra Bernes. That race resulted in a lawsuit by one of the candidates, Howard Mead, following the July election, an appeal to the Supreme Court of Georgia, and an entirely new election in November.

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While Mike did not like having to go through such a long race in 2004, it remains an example of how important the courts are in resolving disputes. That is the whole point. Courts are important. Judges are important and that is why everyone should be paying close attention to this election. Listen to the interviews and make your decision, but vote.

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Mike told me that he had refused to sign the pledge proposed by the Committee for Ethical Judicial Campaigns. His reasoning was that he wasn’t going to do that stuff anyway. He didn’t see a need to sign something. While I can’t particularly fault Mike’s reasoning, I have to point out that he did fill out the judicial questionaire generated by Georgia Right to Life. This is the secret questionaire that I criticized in my interview with Dan Becker.

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As I told Mike, I was surprised that he would think filling out the questionaire was of any benefit in selecting a judicial candidate. Since he did not see the logic of signing a pledge to run an ethical campaign, I would have thought Mike would have found any questionaire to be unnecessary. Mike’s explanation was, I must admit, straightforward and disarming. He explained that he thought people had a right to know things about him and if the questionnaire was what people (some of them, at least) wanted to know, he had no problem filling it out.

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As a criminal defense attorney, you might jump to the conclusion that Mike was liberal, at least liberal leaning (no offense intended Mike), you know, get the criminal off at all costs. By filling out the judicial questionnaire, you might jump to the conclusion that Mike is conservative, at least on abortion issues (nothing wrong there, either). I don’t know Mike just because of one interview, but nothing in his conversation gave me pause for concern as to his philosophy, liberal or conservative or centrist or otherwise. I say this out of fairness to Mike and in light of my stated position on the judicial questionnaire.

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I still don’t like the idea of a judicial questionnaire. Mike’s interview made me think about this further, which is good. He made me realize that it isn’t because he, or anyone else, fills out the questionnaire, that I don’t like it. I don’t like it because of the mentality of the people that want a candidate to fill it out.

VOTE!!! NOVEMBER 4TH!!

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And David (http://viparyaya.wordpress.com) chimes in on the election here in Georgia:
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We’re electing 3 judges to the Court of Appeals of Georgia on November 4, 2008.  2 of the judges are incumbents running unopposed.  However, Judge John H. Ruffin is retiring at the end of his current term, and there are seven candidates running for his seat on the Court of Appeals.  None of the seven are household names (at least not in this household), and I don’t like going into the voting booth completely uninformed, so I spent some time this week trying to find out something about each of them.

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Here’s a summary of what I found, together with links to the sources of the information: 

The candidates are (in the order they’re listed on the sample ballot):

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Tamela L Adkins:  A divorce lawyer in Lawrenceville.  She advertised $ 499 uncontested divorces on billboards.  According to Daily Report Online she had some financial problems a few years ago (the owner of the billboards sued her law firm in 2005, claiming it was owed $ 16,000), and is not listed in Westlaw as counsel on any appellate decisions.  She is also one of 3 candidates who refused to sign a pledge that they wouldn’t announce their positions on matters that might come before the court.  Here’s a picture of Adkins’ billboard in Gwinnett County.

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Sara Doyle:  Partner at Holland & Knight in Atlanta.  Works in civil litigation and education law in Atlanta.  Daily Report says she is connected to the Republican establishment in Georgia.  She has worked on 16 appeals court cases.

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Bruce M. Edenfield: Trial lawyer from Dahlonega.  Daily Report says he was listed as counsel on 62 appellate decisions, which is the second most of any of the candidates.  He says he is backed by both former Governor Roy Barnes (D) and former Attorney General Michael Bowers (R), and hasn’t been affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican party.  He claimed to have collected the most campaign contributions of any of the candidates. 

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Christopher J McFadden:  Appeals lawyer from Decatur.  Has the most appeals court experience of any of the candidates: 78 cases.  Wrote the book “Georgia Appellate Practice,” and is considered an expert on the appeals process.

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Perry J. McGuire: Republican nominee for State Attorney General in 2006.  Former State Senator for Douglas county and former corporate lawyer for Chick-fil-A.  Relatively little litigation experience and no appeals court experience, so he touts his “business sense”.   Advertised his support for the old state flag when he ran for State Senate in 1993, but now says he’s glad the flag has been changed.  Endorsed by Georgia Right to Life, he’s one of 3 candidates who refused to sign a pledge that they wouldn’t announce their positions on matters that might come before the court.

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Michael S. Meyer von Bremen: Democratic state senator from Albany — chair of Senate Special Judiciary Committee and former Senate minority leader.  Introduced an indigent defense bill in 2003 that became law, and opposed 2005 legislation designed to make it harder for plaintiffs to win tort suits.  Has a large and varied amount of litigation experience, and 12 appeals cases to his name.

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Mike Sheffield: Criminal defense attorney in Lawrenceville.  Ran for the Court of Appeals in 2004, but lost to Debra Bernes.  Estimates he’s appealed about 60 cases to the Court of Appeals or the State Supreme Court.  One of 3 candidates who refused to sign a pledge that they wouldn’t announce their positions on matters that might come before the court.

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There are interviews with 6 of the candidates on the website for the legal affairs radio show What is Goin’ On?.  (Perry McGuire apparently wouldn’t return the host’s phone calls.  But that’s okay, because I know all I need to about him…)

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Unfortunately, there’s no telling how voters will select between these candidates, given the low profile of this race and the limited information available.  Jim Wooten pointed out that 4 of the 12 judges currently on the court got there by being elected (instead of first being appointed by the governor), and all 4 have names that begin with “A” or “B”, so a lot of voters seem to pick the first name on the ballot.  Most of this year’s candidates seem to have the appropriate experience and temperament to be on the Court of Appeals, but I’m not sure that’s true of the candidate who’s listed first…