Letters to the Editor

Letter: Pozonsky lacked the scrutiny that Alaska Judges undergo

Fil Pierce ("Politics involved in job process," Dec. 8) was right to be offended, along with the rest of us, by the hiring of Paul Pozonsky, a former judge in Pennsylvania who quit the post in the face of investigations into his questionable judicial conduct. Pozonsky was hired to be a worker compensation hearing officer.

But Mr. Pierce was very wrong to suggest that "(m)ore Alaska judges need investigation." In fact all Alaska judges and justices (unlike hearing officers) are extensively investigated and vetted by the public and the legal community before the Alaska Judicial Council sends a name or names to the governor, who then makes a judicial appointment from that list of names.

Pozonsky would never have made the cut.

Alaska likely has the finest and least politicized judicial selection process in the country. The quality of Alaska's judiciary proves our system's merit. We should all oppose any effort to change the selection process we now have, to elect our judges, or to further politicize a process that has served the state so well.

— Michael J. Schneider

Alaska Chapter president, American Board of Trial Advocates

Anchorage

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