Perspective on judge

The Idaho Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits a judge from responding to personal attacks. Therefore, I feel that the complaints regarding Judge Clark Peterson in your Dec. 4 article deserve some balance and perspective.

At any given time, each of the magistrates in Kootenai County may have 750-800 pending cases. These include divorce, custody, probate, criminal, juvenile, small claims and landlord-tenant matters. Litigation results have many factors, including the history and expectations of the parties, the extent of their conflict, the advice and conduct of the attorneys, and the applicable laws. With so many pending cases, civil and criminal trial dates are limited, and lengthy trials may require the court to reschedule additional days when they have available trial days in the future. This may feel like long delays to some clients, but all clients, whether or not they have attorneys, are entitled to their day in court and are treated the same by our judges.

While your article highlighted two unhappy litigants, I wanted to express the additional point of view, which is that we are lucky to have excellent judges in Kootenai County who allow thousands of people each year to have their cases heard and fairly determined.

Anne Solomon

Coeur d’Alene