Ousted Collin County judge back as “visiting judge”

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

"In Texas the citizens elect their judges." -- County Judge Keith Self

County Judge Keith Self made that statement when he attempted to give District Judge Chris Oldner a civics lesson two weeks ago. Self was complaining to Oldner over the county's use of visiting judges.

Visiting judges are generally retired district or appellate judges who are hired by a county to conduct hearings and trials. They are generally hired to hear specific cases, or to fill in for a sick or vacationing judge.

All Texas counties use visiting judges for cases where there would be a conflict of interest for the local judges to hear a case. For example, in the case of Collin County vs. Collin County Auditor, since the Auditor is hired by a panel of the county's district judges, and the county sets the judges' budgets, a retired visiting judge from East Texas was brought in to hear the case.

Visiting judges are also used to help speed up the administration of justice when the dockets are overloaded. They serve an important role in helping the courts reduce backlogs.

Their salary, about $400/day are paid by the State of Texas, and the county. Expenses are born by the county. Visiting judges who work only one day a month continue to receive retirement credit for the entire month. In 2002, a Texas State Senate report noted that 25% of Texas' court budget goes to visiting judges.

But while they may once have been elected somewhere in Texas, Self is correct in saying that the citizens did not elect that judge to serve in his present role.

When I think of a visiting judge, I envision a distinguished retired jurist who volunteers to help his community in the best way he can. I think many times, perhaps even most of the time that is exactly what happens.

But what of a judge whom the citizens purposely did not elect? One whom the voters chose not to return to the bench?

When a judge is defeated at the polls, he is still eligible to sit as a visiting judge. Often he does just that. Even though the voters demanded and elected a new judge, the truth is that the old one just might not fade away.

And so we find Judge Charles F. Sandoval sitting as a visiting County Court at Law judge in the Collin County courthouse.

Sandoval was defeated by Judge Suzanne Wooten in the 2008 Republican primary after receiving the lowest bar poll rating of any sitting Collin County judge.

But he's back! And the $64 thousand question is, "Did your vote mean anything?

Anything at all?"

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