Imagine for a moment that unfortunately you’re in court, and just before your lawyer starts to speak, your opponent’s lawyer says, “Wait a moment.” He walks up to one of the judges and says, “Here’s a $25,000 check for your re-election campaign,” then turns around, smiles at your lawyer and says, “Go ahead and continue.” 

You would be shocked and outraged. Yet that is essentially what regularly happens for some justices in our Montana Supreme Court.

Just last year, for example, in a case against a couple of insurance companies, the trial lawyers in the case collectively gave $24,880 to the Trial Lawyer’s PAC, which everyone knew was going to be spending its money to support Mike Wheat for re-election this year. Not surprisingly, Mike Wheat was the only judge on the court to rule that those trial lawyers should get a $1.2 million attorney fee award — not a bad return on a mere $25,000 investment.

That is obviously unfair. Nobody should have to be in court under those conditions. Whether those huge payments are buying favoritism or not, it really undermines everyone’s confidence in a fair and impartial judiciary.

But it isn’t just unfair — it hurts all Montanans. It is well known that Montana has some of the highest insurance premiums in the nation. For example, Insure.com ranks Montana as having the sixth highest car insurance premiums in the nation. And a 2014 study by the State of Oregon ranked Montana has having some of the most expensive workers compensation premiums in the nation. 

If you own a car in Montana, you are paying more in premiums. If you own a business, you are paying more. A big chunk of those higher premiums are going right into the pockets of trial lawyers.  

In other words, all Montanans are subsidizing a small group of wealthy lawyers. And those trial lawyers are turning around and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure their judges get on the court. And so the cycle continues.

That is why we are supporting Lawrence VanDyke for the Montana Supreme Court. We are a former district court judge and county attorney, and an owner of an insurance agency. We had no intention of getting involved in any Montana Supreme Court race. But then we saw an unprincipled and spurious campaign ad on television from a sitting justice, not from some third party. 

The ad is full of innuendos and maliciously attacks the integrity of Mr. VanDyke. We would have hoped that in races for the Montana Supreme Court some semblance of honor would apply, and a candidate would campaign on his own credentials and not make false claims about an opponent. Perhaps it was designed to draw attention away from those who really influence these races.

Lawrence VanDyke is a fifth generation Montanan who isn’t bringing an agenda to the Montana Supreme Court, just unmatched experience as a first-rate appellate and constitutional attorney, both nationally and as Montana’s Solicitor General. He hasn’t told anyone he will favor them in court. He just promises to apply the law evenly and without bias. That is all we ask for — nothing more and nothing less.

Nels Swandal is a former district court judge and county attorney in Park County and Don Richman is the owner of Richman Insurance, in Harlem.