Attorney, justice of peace vie for District Court post

Voters in November will choose between a justice of the peace and a career attorney when deciding who will take the Department 2 district judge seat being vacated by Judge Katherine Curtis.

Daniel Wilson and Robert Allison defeated 57-year-old Kalispell attorney Bruce Fredrickson in the primary election. Because district judge seats are nonpartisan positions, Wilson and Allison progressed to the general election as the top two vote-getters, with Allison taking 45 percent of the vote and Wilson taking 35 percent compared to Fredrickson, who had less than 20 percent.

Justice of the Peace Daniel Wilson, the only candidate with judicial experience, took his current position in 2011 after a career that saw him serve as deputy county attorney in Flathead, Cascade and Blaine counties.

Wilson has said he made his decision to seek the judgeship when he heard Curtis would not be seeking re-election. Similarly, it was when now-District Judge David Ortley announced he was not seeking re-election as justice of the peace that Wilson pursued that position.

Among the goals for his judgeship, should he be elected, is to develop a master calendar that shows not only when and under which judge each hearing is set to take place, but also other helpful information.

“At a glance I could see all of my cases where a decision was pending and how long they had been awaiting a decision,” Wilson said. “I could make sure that cases weren’t falling through the cracks.”

Wilson also wants to encourage voluntary disclosure of documents in civil cases by adopting a rule that would allow those documents disclosed ahead of trial to be admissible at trial unless the opposing party filed a timely objection.

“A rule that says a party that voluntarily discloses a document can use that document without going through the expense of procuring a witness whose testimony might otherwise be unnecessary, unless the opposing party believes it is somehow inauthentic or shouldn’t be admitted at all,” Wilson said.

Attorney Bob Allison pointed to his 37 years of practicing law in the Flathead as the main reason for voters to consider him.

He said that through that experience, he has handled virtually every kind of case that comes before the court. That includes what he called “oddball stuff” such as dependent neglect proceedings.

Allison is a fourth-generation county resident, which he said gives him a further advantage of a historical perspective.

One of Allison’s goals, if elected, is to bring back the opportunity for judges to meet with attorneys in their chambers to discuss cases and allow better results in the courtroom.

“I hearken back to when I first started practicing,” Allison said. “[The judges] used to, prior to any kind of contested hearings, have both attorneys come back into their chambers for 10 or 15 minutes. The judge would give you some sort of general impressions of how he might be leaning, at least on certain issues.”

He said the attorneys could then go back and talk with one another as well as with their clients and that it would often result in a resolution.

“I’m thinking a little bit of time on the front end might save bigger amounts of time on the back end,” Allison said.

He also said that, with two new judges and one judge — Ortley — only in office for two years so far and the court administrator retiring in January, he would like to look at reworking the scheduling for criminal court days on Thursdays and Fridays.

Allison added that he is being endorsed by Frederickson.

 Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.