I was chagrined to read about the lawsuit filed against the Alaska Judicial Council recently. The comments by Indiana attorney James Bopp, attacking personal injury trial attorneys as a dynamic force behind the selection of attorney members of the Council, were bombastic distortions of reality.

Attorneys representing injured Alaskans make up a small percentage of more than 2,400 active members of the Alaska Bar Association. All members select the nine attorney members who constitute three-fourths of the Association's Board of Governors. This cross-section of the association as a whole then selects the three attorneys who will sit on the Council--only three-sevenths of the Judicial Council.

Considering this selection process, one can see that Mr. Bopp's sucker punch at trial attorneys was the type of grandstanding by out-of-state activists that should not be given an audience in our local newspaper, because it skews the public's understanding unfairly.

Christopher Canterbury
Eagle River

As published in the Anchorage Daily News, 9/3/09.