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The Associated Press
Monday, February 07, 2005
Judge says courts will suffer without higher pay
A Houston judge who is quitting the bench to return to private practice says Texas is on the brink of a judicial crisis.
State District Judge Bruce Oakley said the Legislature needs to give judges raises.
"We will not retain the best and the brightest if the state continues to pay them less than first-year (law firm) associates," Oakley told the Houston Chronicle for a story in Monday's editions.
Oakley said money wasn't a factor in his decision to quit the civil bench. He said that he wanted to return to advocating for clients.
"Being the referee is very interesting, but I want to be the one in the game taking the shot," Oakley said.
His focus will be on industries, including energy and finance, as a partner in Pillsbury Winthrop's office in Houston . His resignation is effective Feb. 15.
Judges statewide have received one pay raise since 1989 after the Legislature tied judicial pay to lawmakers' pension rates, the Chronicle reported. Four counties, including Harris, were allowed two years ago to supplement judicial salaries through 2007.
A bill filed Monday by Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, would give judges a raise so their salaries would be comparable to judges' salaries in other states.
Under the bill, a district judge's salary would increase from $101,000 a year to $125,000. For appellate judges, salaries would go from $107,000 to $135,000 and high court salaries would increase from $113,000 to $150,000.
According to Duncan 's office, Texas ' judicial pay ranks 39th in the country — a big reason why fair, effective jurists leave their jobs for the private sector.
Harris County judges make $128,000 a year, more than state Supreme Court justices.
"It sounds like a lot of money, and it is," said state District Judge Mark Davidson, who is chief of Harris County 's civil courts. "But any of us can resign the bench and instantly double our income."
He said that Harris County civil judges were resigning at a rate of 20 percent a year before the supplemental income order was approved. Many cited the low pay for the resignations.
"If the public wants the judiciary to be a place where lawyers come for a few years and then move on, there is no need to give judges a pay raise," Davidson said. "I think the public deserves better than institutionalizing inexperience."
The average age of a Harris County civil district court judge was 44 in 2002, down from 58.5 in 1978.