By TAMMIE TOLER
Princeton Times
May 02, 2008 11:00 am
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PRINCETON — Something’s usually broken when people find themselves in Family Court, and it takes a special person to deliver justice with a firm hand and a compassionate heart in the face of a divorce proceeding, amid a child custody dispute or after allegations of domestic violence.
This primary, there are four candidates vying for three seats on the Mercer County Family Court bench, but two will run unopposed. Judge Mary Ellen Griffith and attorney Omar Aboulhosn are the only names in their respective races, while attorneys Lisa Clark and Ward Morgan will square of for the third judgeship created in 2007 legislation.
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Griffith was appo-inted to replace Judge Kimber McMillion by Gov. Joe Manchin in July 2006, making this primary the first time voters will see her name on a ballot.
A practicing attorney for almost 20 years, Griffith established ChildLaw Services in 2001 as a legal firm for children caught in the legal system through no fault of their own.
During her time at the helm of ChildLaw Services, Griffith and her staff represented children involved in custody battles, abuse investigations, adoption and more. In 2006, she told the Princeton Times that CLS represented a dream realized, and it was time to explore new horizons.
“One, I think I can be a stronger advocate for children and families from the court’s position. And, two, I felt like I could do the job and do a good job as judge, both with regard to the cases and the management of cases,” she said.
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Aboulhosn stepped down from Princeton City Council in January to pursue his run for Family Court judge, and no one challenged him.
A lifelong resident of Mercer County, Aboulhosn studied at Concord University and West Virginia University before returning home to practice. He has served as a magistrate, Princeton City Court judge, chief mental hygiene commissioner and on board the Police Public Service Commission, in addition to practicing general, personal injury, family, criminal and real estate law.
He is a member of the Mercer County Bar Association, West Virginia State Bar, Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the West Virginia Trial Lawyers Association.
Aboulhosn is running for the seat that will be vacated by Judge Edwin Wiley’s retirement.
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Clark was born in Daniels and graduated from Shady Spring High School before studying law and making her way to Mercer County almost 18 years ago. Her practice has been almost exclusively dedicated to family law for the last 13 years.
She decided to run for Family Court judge after being a candidate for the position when Manchin appointed Griffith.
“I just seemed to me to be a natural progression to run this time,” she said. “My experience just lends itself to that.”
A former Bureau of Child Support Enforcement attorney representing Mercer and McDowell counties, Clark said she was very aggressive in pursuing child support for families due financial assistance from an absent parent. While there, she learned the value of case and time management, as well as the importance of advocating for children in situations far beyond their control.
For the last eight years, Clark has practiced family law with the firm Gibson, Lefler & Associates, where she has handled a long list of custody, divorce, child support, adoption, abuse and neglect cases.
In that time, Clark said she has seen the division and allocation of assets become increasingly complicated, as the court decides allotments of retirement benefits, tax responsibilities and credits and more.
While money matters have demanded more attention, she said more progressive policies have helped ensure children’s access to both their parents whenever possible, even in the wake of divorce and sometimes bitter custody battles.
“As a general rule of thumb, we believe it’s important that both parents are involved in a child’s life,” she said, pledging to support shared parenting opportunities, if the facts of any given case warrant the possibility.
“The best interest of the child is always given top priority,” she said. “...We don’t do cookie-cutter orders.”
If elected, Clark promised to keep in mind that the people who appear before her are often in the most vulnerable states of their lives.
“In my practice, I have strived to respect the emotional distress of my client, but not to indulge that distress to the point of jeopardizing the case or conducting it in the best light possible,” she said. “As a judge, you must be an impartial arbiter of the law, but you can still respect the fear that these people feel when they appear before you.”
Handling domestic violence protective orders will take a large portion of time for any Mercer County Family Court judge. With an average of more than 80 domestic violence petitions filed every month in Mercer County, Clark said each case must be weighed on its own merits.
“Each case is very fact-based. Given the number of fatalities, you have to take each case seriously,” she said. “If, however, the case does not meet statutory requirements, I would not have a problem denying it.”
On top of her practice, Clark said she has volunteered in a number of community capacities, including as a member of the Bluefield Salvation Army Board of Directors; a former president of the Mother Goose Day Care Board of Directors; a Read Aloud presenter; a job-shadowing mentor; PTO organizations at Princeton Primary School and Mercer Elementary; a Mercer County Youth Soccer League and Midget Football volunteer; Princeton Middle School Band Boosters, a Career Connections worker and more.
Professionally, she is a member of the West Virginia State Bar Association and the West Virginia Trial Lawyers Association.
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Morgan was born in Iaeger and spent the first 18 years of his life in McDowell County. After stints as a journalist and in school at Marshall University, he started a law practice in Bluefield, where he’s worked for the last 18 years.
Most of his professional career has been spent as a solo practitioner taking on all kinds of cases.
“The thing about being a solo practitioner is that you’re primarily a problem solver,” Morgan said, explaining that attorneys working on their own often rely on organizational and management skills, along with ingenuity and determination, to keep their practices afloat without partners to lean on.
Though his practice has centered largely on family law, Morgan said he has also served as a mental hygiene commissioner, collecting evidence, taking testimony and deciding on a individuals’ competence to seek or deny mental health assistance. He also possesses a resume rich in trial work and has served as a mediator in civil disputes, along with teaching political science at Bluefield State College.
“These experiences as a lawyer have given me a sort of perspective that will help me on the bench. I think that judges benefit from a broad perspective, as do the parties that appear before them,” he said.
Morgan said he enjoys helping people work through their problems and finds his job very rewarding.
“I see this job as a service. Being a Family Court judge would be an opportunity to serve the community,” he said.
From his perspective, Family Court cases are the most important that go before any court.
“It’s really the most serious work of all, in my opinion, because the issues that arise in Family Court have such a direct, immediate impact on families,” he said. “Not only the parties in Family Court have issues at stake. You have innocent parties, such as children, step-parents, grandparents and absentee parents who have interests.”
However, he vowed his top priority would always be the children and their best interests. In most instances, he believed having free access to both parents through shared-parenting plans would fall into that category.
“If shared parenting is, in my opinion, appropriate, and it usually is, I would support that.”
Turning attention to domestic violence issues, Morgan said those charges often prove the most difficult to investigate and rule.
“They have to be taken seriously. You have to listen to the evidence very closely and weigh the credibility of both sides,” he said. “We do have to be cautious that we don’t allow the process to be used as a sword ... It’s a serious problem, and you really have to look at on a case-by-case basis. I will look at the evidence, weigh it carefully and render a decision as quickly as I can.”
A prerequisite for being a successful Family Court judge, Morgan said, should be knowing and understanding the constituents served by the court. Having lived and worked in Mercer and McDowell counties makes him uniquely qualified on that front, he said, and a desire to serve the people in his communities drove him to run for office.
“I think I can do more good as a decision-maker rather than as an advocate for one side or the other,” he said.
— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net.
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