- Quickdraw McLaw
- 2020 General Election
- 10 Comments
- 159 Views
*This is the last of 11 posts today covering contested family court judicial races in the Eighth Judicial District Court.
With ballots set to start arriving in mailboxes next week, it’s time to talk about the contested judicial races featured on that ballot. We welcome your comments on the qualifications of the candidates as well as any information you can offer to help voters make an educated decision. Just remember to keep your comments appropriate and try to avoid defamation.
For District Court Judge, Department Z, the candidates are:
- Mercer, Michele “Shell”
- Perez, Romeo
What are your thoughts on the race in this department?
I'm voting for Romeo. After having the opportunity to speak with both candidates, Romeo is just much smarter and it feels like he genuinely cares about helping fix the system.
Shell is certainly no legal scholar.
I think either would be fine, but I am going with Romeo.
I like Shell. She has the most family law experience in what will be a close race. Nothing against Mr. Perez, but I wish he would have ran in another department.
Shell is awesome. I've worked with her before and she geniunely cares about her clients. She's smart and will make an excellent family court judge.
Neither is great. Neither is some legal scholar(to make a real understatement). Each may encounter some difficulty with the relatively few cases that involve complex legal and/or financial issues.
But the overwhelming majority of these cases do NOT involve really complex matters, and considering that fact, Perez handles a high volume practice focusing on representing working class people for reasonable prices.
And he seems to project real life common sense approach to matters.
Ms. Mercer does not seem to appear in Family Court even a fraction that Mr. Perez does.
I give him the nod.
I am going with Shell Mercer. She has the family law and judicial experience I look for. I also have worked with and against her several times in the past and she is very respectful, careful, and listens to her clients. I was also fortunate enough to be in her court room when she took obnoxious counsel to task for not being prepared and making his client take more time off of work.
They both have experience, but Romeo has a great reputation as a really nice guy. I think people forget what miserable circumstances bring people into family court – some kindness from the bench (in your favor or not) goes a long way with me. I'm voting Romeo.
I think that the average rank and file family law practitioner will find either of them acceptable.
However ,as to the Family Law specialists who generally serve high end clients, and who tend to have the more complex, involved cases, they may encounter some occasional frustration as I agree with 10:11 that both these candidates may be a little out of their depth with such matters.
And for those who say "how could any case be complex, it's Family Law", if you practice down there you will find that it is just as involved and challenging as many other areas of law.
No, really, I mean it. I realize you will either not believe me or conclude I'm an idiot for finding any of these cases complex or challenging–unless, of course, you practice heavily in the area, in which case you will probably agree with me.
Shell gets my support. Super smart and very nice, with lots of Family Law experience. I'm slightly biased–I worked with her years ago and she was terrific.