Research Paper on "Ethical Advantages and Disadvantages"

Quoted Instructions for "Ethical Advantages and Disadvantages" Assignment:

Hi I am requesting ***** "*****"I believe his name is ALAN. he worked on a previous order of mine (A2046102). A research paper based on the article from the January 31, 2003, Richmond Times Dispatch, Carrico Ending 42 Years On High Court, Virginia's Chief Justice Retires After 42 Years of Judicial Service. What are some ethical advantages and disadvantages of an appointed vs. an elected judiciary? What are some ethical advantages of having a mandatory judicial retirement age? see the related information below to ASSIST in the paper

Retiring chief justice spent 42 years on high court Richmond Times-Dispatch

RICHMOND, Va. - Harry L. Carrico was a judge before five of his six colleagues on the Virginia Supreme Court were born. The sixth was barely out of diapers when Carrico became a trial justice in Fairfax County in 1943.

When Carrico was named to the high court, the man who will succeed him as chief justice, Leroy R. Hassell Sr., was 5 years old.

The number the Virginia State Bar assigns to a newly admitted lawyer increases with the number of lawyers admitted. Last week, it went to 49,010. Carrico's number is 867.

As chief justice since 1981, he has presided over the admission of almost two-thirds of the lawyers practicing in the state.

Any discussion of the 86-year-old Carrico might understandably start with longevity, but it moves quickly to vitality and accomplishment. His 42 years on the Supreme Court, 22 as chief justice, ended Friday.

His work ethic would be "almost mythical in proportion but for the fact that it's true," said Justice Donald W. Lemons, the junior member of the court.

Carrico typically rises at 4:15 a.m. for a bike ride of at least six miles around his western Henrico County neighborhood. He's in his office by 6:45 a.m. and often is the last to leave the Supreme Court building in the evening.

Until recently, he Rollerbladed on weekends in the commuter parking lot on Gaskins Road, but the county closed it because of concern about lawsuits. "I'm going to go back to it," he said. "We'll find a place."

His reputation for vigor has hardly been diminished by his marriage in July 1994 to Lynn Brackenridge, who is more than 40 years younger than he.

By all accounts, it is a remarkably happy union, even though Brackenridge is almost as energetic as Carrico in her role as president of Gateway Homes of Greater Richmond Inc. The organization operates residences and a supported living program in Chesterfield County for mentally ill adults.

"They truly love each other," Lemons said. "They enjoy each other and they are enjoyable to see together."

If he had his way, Carrico makes clear, he would continue on the court. "It's a very interesting job. There's something new every day. I don't want to quit."

But a state law that took effect after he began his most recent 12-year term requires judges to retire the January after their 70th birthday. The law allowed judges to complete the terms they were serving, regardless of their age, and Carrico's ended Jan. 31.

He will continue as a senior justice, sitting on three-judge panels that decide whether a case is worth full review and substituting on the court when a justice is disqualified for some reason.

His departure has touched off banquets and accolades, including standing ovations from the legislature during Gov. Mark R. Warner's State of the Commonwealth address and from the Supreme Court staff on his last day on the bench as chief justice.

"I don't really deserve all this," Carrico said. "I just did what I thought I was supposed to do."

The work includes much more than writing opinions and presiding over the court when it hears oral arguments or holds conferences about how the individual cases should be decided.

The chief justice also is the administrative head of the court system, responsible for budgets, the technology that connects the four levels of the system and awareness of judicial and legal trends.

As such, he operates as a combination lobbyist-department head for the judiciary in its interaction with the General Assembly.

Some of the enhancements that Carrico has championed have been tough sells. He said one that he wasn't able to accomplish was the biggest disappointment of his career.

He was a strong proponent of a kinder, gentler way of handling domestic relations cases: a family court that would combine procedures now split between circuit courts and juvenile and domestic relations district courts.

The General Assembly approved the concept in 1993 but never provided the money. "I feel it would be the best change that could be made," Carrico said.

A more successful effort was his attempt to convince the General Assembly that state judges should be paid on a par with their federal counterparts. Though he didn't meet total success in that mission, Virginia judges are now relatively well paid.

Circuit judges earn $123,027 and rank 10th among their counterparts in the other 49 states, while a U.S. District Court judge earns $150,000.

The major judicial initiative during Carrico's tenure was the creation of the Virginia Court of Appeals in 1985. Carrico notes wryly that it took only 17 years, and the court does not have full jurisdiction as do such courts in the federal system and in most state courts.

Carrico has supported other judicial and administrative initiatives, such as mediation as a substitute for litigation, especially in the family context.

"If something is good and is going to help you, you're foolish not to at least investigate where it might take you," he said.

Justice Lemons said, "He's always been willing to be on the cutting edge of technology and other developments and to do it personally."

Carrico had written his opinions on a yellow pad with a pencil for more than 25 years when the head of the court's information systems installed a computer in Carrico's chambers.

Technology and more administrative help have enabled the Supreme Court to handle an increase in its workload from 420 cases a year when Carrico joined the court in 1961 to about 3,000 cases last year.

***** B. Beach, clerk of the Supreme Court, said, Carrico's "leadership to me has always been the example that he sets."

Lemons agreed. "He's a consensus builder because he philosophically believes that that's the right way to lead an institution, and because at heart he's a gentleman