Charles Spain

Qualifications: What characteristics and experience qualify you to serve as a justice?

Judge (2010), justice (2019), board certified civil appellate law Texas Board of Legal Specialization (1994), briefing attorney for Texas Supreme Court, and 35 years as an appellate attorney.

Ethics: Since judicial candidates solicit donations and raise money to be elected, how can voters be assured that campaign donations will not impact how judges interpret the law and review lower court decisions?

This is a matter of personal integrity. My 23 years of service to the appellate courts as a staff attorney watching judges prepared me to do what federal judges take an oath to do: "administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and ... faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me." I have done that since 2010.

Judicial Elections: How would the administration of justice be impacted if judges ran in nonpartisan races?

As the late Justice Bill Kilgarlin explained to me when I served as a briefing attorney for the Supreme Court of Texas, our partisan elected system has tons of negatives, especially fundraising, but it forces candidates to go meet people, especially with political clubs who endorse candidates. In down-ballot races, it's hard for people to know how to vote. Party affiliation and endorsements help.

Equity: What can be done to improve access to justice for all, including persons or groups who may be underserved?

Local outreach is important. I served on the Houston Bar Association's Harris County Law Library Committee, which does great work creating instructional guides for people who represent themselves in court. I also passionately believe in fundamental fairness, which requires the courts to notify people of any deficiencies and give them an opportunity to fix the problem before deciding the case.

Court System: What effect will the new business court and statewide court of appeals have on the administration of justice in Texas?

It will remove cases from being decided by locally elected judges. It will likely change the political party of those judges.