Mississippi Litigation Review & Commentary : Mississippi Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Phillip W. Thomas Law Firm : MS Litigation Review & Commentary

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Incumbents--many unopposed--were the big winners in Tuesday's judicial elections in Mississippi. The best site I found for vote totals in all the races was on the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal's website.

Judge Donna Barnes defeated challenger Kelly Mims for the Court of Appeals. Mims ran a hard race, but voters did not have much of a reason to vote Barnes out of office.

In local judge races, Jeff Weill won Swan Yerger's seat on the Hinds County Circuit Court with over 60% of the vote. Whoever Governor Barbour appoints to replace Justice James Graves on the Mississippi Supreme Court should fear Weill. I believe that Weill can beat anyone else who runs for the seat.

Bill Gowan defeated Malcolm Harrison by 700 votes for the other contested Hinds County Circuit Court seat. Gowan won on the strength of a bunch of Malcolm McMillan TV commercials. Harrison had been appointed to the position by Governor Haley Barbour. Rain on Tuesday may have been the deciding factor in Gowan's win.

On the Coast, Gulfport native Jennifer Schloegel beat four other candidates to win the Chancery Judge seat being vacated by Margaret Alfonso, who won a county court judge seat. Schloegel, her husband Mark, and both their families are well known and popular on the Coast. Schloegel's father-in-law is mayor of Gulfport.

Like Weill, Schloegel probably could also win an election for the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court. She would also be a candidate for an appointment to replace Justice Mike Randolph on the Mississippi Supreme Court if he ever acts on rumors that he is interested in running for state wide office.

There will be an interesting runoff between Melvin Priester and Brent Southern for Hinds County County Court judge. Priester got over 5,000 more votes than Southern. But Southern will pick up all Frank Farmer's supporters and a lot of Trent Walker's in the runoff. I expect the runoff to be close and would not be surprised to see Southern win based on better voter turnout by his supporters.

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The Clarion-Ledger ran this article on Monday about the upcoming elections to fill the seats of retiring Judge Yerger (Hinds County Circuit) and Barnett (Hinds County County). The article was largely a repeat from an October article that quoted Ashley Ogden and Jeff Weill stating that they would probably run for Judge Yerger’s seat. I wrote about and Ogden v. Weill race here.

On the County Court side, Jackson attorneys Trent Walker and Melvin Priester have qualified for Judge Barnett’s seat. Walker is a Brandon native and Jackson State graduate who lives in South Jackson. He has extensive experience on both the plaintiff and defense side in civil litigation as well as in the criminal defense arena. He recently obtained an acquittal in a murder trial in North Mississippi that sounded a little like the trial in My Cousin Vinnie. He currently works for Schwartz and Associates in Jackson.

Priester is a special circuit court judge and practices law in Jackson.

The Ledger article does not identify the date of the election or the deadline for qualifying for the races. I believe—and I am not certain about this—that the qualifying deadline is in May and the non-partisan elections are in November.