Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog

The Maryland Daily Record follows up on an interesting story that I first saw in an editorial in the Washington Post back in August. Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, Maryland Court of Appeals judges have a mandatory retirement age of 70. Three judges - Dale R. Cathell, Irma S. Raker, and Alan M. Wilner - will retire during the next governor's term. This means that approximately 43% of the court will change by the next governor.

Also unlike the Supreme Court, the Maryland Court of Appeals has been generally free of vitriolic ideological warfare that has long defined the Supreme Court in the modern era. This is probably most attributable to the fact that the issues a state court faces do not typically radiate core political beliefs and values the way Supreme Court decisions so often do.

Still, it is impossible to deny that judges nominated by either Baltimore City Mayor Martin O'Malley, or Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan will select judges that are generally expected to be more likely (I'm trying hard to qualify this statement, as you can see) to chose personal injury victims over insurance companies than judges selected by Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.