October 16, 2014      12:00 PM
Coppedge: Many Texas judges and lawyers are ignorant of or ignoring the law
Veteran of Texas judicial politics argues that criminal penalties might need to be available for judges in cases of breaking campaign finance law
There are some lawyers,
judges, judicial candidates and individuals in Texas that are in clear
violation of the Judicial Campaign Fairness Act.
This includes some of the wealthiest personal injury trial lawyers in
Texas and some judges and candidates for trial courts as well as appellate
courts. It seems that they either cannot
read and understand the law or choose to ignore it.
They are violating the
legal contribution limits. In some cases the amounts involved are tens of
thousands of dollars. Some individual
contributors have made well over one hundred thousand dollars in prohibited
contributions over the past few years to numerous judges and judicial
candidates. The law provides only civil remedies
but those include a state cause of action against both the recipient and the contributor
for three times the amount involved. The
law also includes a cause of action by any opposing candidates against both the
recipient and the contributor of twice the amount involved plus legal fees.
Many people do not fully
understand the Judicial Campaign Fairness Act. The folks violating it obviously
must not. Or they don't care – either because
they don't think it will be enforced or that the potential penalties are not
enough to dissuade them.
A law firm in Texas cannot
write a check to a judicial candidate for more than the individual limit.
For a judicial race where
the individual contribution limit is $5,000, a lar
firm cannot make a $30,000 contribution. It can only make a $5,000
contribution. When added together with other contributions from anyone
associated with that firm, the total cannot exceed $30,000. That is what many
are either ignorant of or ignoring.
You can read the entire column from John Coppedge,
MD, by clicking on the R&D
Department.
By John Coppedge, MD
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