Sunday, April 5, 2009

Analysis: Rules Ignored In Picking Arbitrators

The Citizen's Voice features an article today written by Michael Sisak and Dave Janoski highlighting the process, or lack thereof, for picking arbitrators in the Luzerne County court system, past not present.

The Luzerne County court records subpoenaed last week by federal investigators contain evidence that some attorneys and judges skirted customary court procedures when it came to naming arbitrators in certain insurance cases, President Judge Chester B. Muroski said.

In some of the cases, judges presented with petitions to name neutral arbitrators issued orders setting up hearings on the petitions in their own courtrooms rather than in miscellaneous court, a court that decides motions in cases that have not been assigned to a particular judge for trial, Muroski said.

“There are instances in which (the notices) were changed, in that the line that usually appears listing the case with miscellaneous court was changed to allow the case to go to the judge who signed the (notice),” Muroski said.

Muroski said that in his discussions with the FBI, agents did not divulge information about “any judges under scrutiny or not under scrutiny.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

No i am not going to tell them anything lol