About Justice Weaver

Throughout Justice Elizabeth "Betty" Weaver's over 32 years of experience as a trial and appellate judge (Probate/Juvenile, Court of Appeals, Supreme Court), including 2 years as Chief Justice, she has maintained a proven record based on these major practices:
Exercising Judicial Restraint
Applying Common Sense

A fundamental tenet of her stand for jusitice is to hold wrong-doers accountable and responsible for their actions, while providing opportunities for them to discover and develop their own self-worth and to become law-abiding, productive citizens.

In exercising judicial restraint (interpreting, not making, the law -- judicial self-discipline), Justice Weaver has followed the law as constitutionally passed by the legislature and consistent with the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court. She has used the responsibility of interpretation, not as a sword to superimpose her own personal views (or those of special interest groups) on the law, but as a shield to protect the constitutional rights of the people and the constitutional acts of the legislative and executive branches.

Click here to read Michigan Court of Appeals Judge, Donald S. Owens’s Remarks as Presenter at the Induction of Justice Weaver into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame on October 25, 2005.

Click here to read Justice Weaver’s Remarks upon her Induction into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame.

Press Release - 6/10/2005

Press Release - 1/13/2005

In November 2002, Justice Weaver won re-election for a second 8-year term on the Michigan Supreme Court.
This site provides information about her experience, credentials, principles, and major initiatives for the State of Michigan.

Check this site often for up-to-date press releases and other information about important work going on in the Supreme Court of Michigan.

Chief Justice Weaver's State of the Judiciary Message 9/28/00
Continued

The second item has to do with a small but important issue: the part-time status of the probate judges in our smallest counties. These are part-time judges whose counties generate less than an average full-time caseload, and who are permitted to practice law. The statutory salaries of these judges are unjustly much lower than that of their full-time counterparts, and the burden of paying their salaries falls mainly on county taxpayers rather than properly on the state.

That is unfair to the judges, unfair to the county governments, and unfair to their taxpaying citizens. The advent of the family division has worsened this situation, making these probate judges effectively ineligible to serve in the family division and hear the juvenile cases they were elected to hear. Furthermore, counties cannot afford to pay for their assignments under the current statutory formula.
Fortunately, you have already done the hard part of solving this problem. Just before the summer recess you appropriated the money to fund a more practical salary schedule for these probate judges.

What remains to be done is to amend the Revised Judicature Act to accomplish the change, including a prohibition on the practice of law before these judges take office in January for a new six-year term. Senator McManus has already introduced the required legislation. Representative Richner stands ready to move the legislation forward. Together with the Michigan Association of Counties, I urge you to finish this job without delay.

The third item I wish to mention is equally urgent and long overdue. It can benefit our entire system of government and strengthen public safety. I am talking about the immediate creation of a true statewide automated court information system, that is, fully computerizing and connecting the courts.

We have already made this task easier by completing a statewide site survey that tells us how to link up all courts using the current technology of each local jurisdiction. The survey has been delivered to your offices. In this new century, the nationally-admired phrase of our state constitution, "one court of justice," must mean that all the components of Michigan's "one court of justice" are linked electronically. You have committed, as well you should, to making all of Michigan's K-12 public school classrooms technologically current. It is now the courts' turn.

Today, anyone with a personal computer can research the most complex topics and obtain the most exotic commodities from around the world. For example, a search taking less than one-tenth of a second turns up over 90,000 websites containing information about -- wolverines. But a judge sentencing an offender for drunk driving in a Michigan trial court cannot find out if the driver has charges pending in another court of our "one court of justice!" In all but a few jurisdictions, you cannot pay a traffic ticket on-line, or file or check on the status of your case.

For the court system to serve the people as they demand and expect, services and information must be available electronically. Every Chief Justice for 40 years has come before you and asked you to provide the judicial branch with the same level of automation commonly in use in the commercial sector and government agencies.

(continued)

"What we in the judiciary most need is patience, meekness, compassion, and courage to 'Do Right and Fear Not.'"
Chief Justice Weaver
State of the Judiciary

"She is bringing a fresh, dedicated, incisive mind to the Michigan Supreme Court."
Judge Myron Wahls
Court of Appeals

"I know Betty Weaver. She threw me in jail....But I would vote for her, because she...straightened me out, and the sentence was just."
Former convicted juvenile offender

"Your judicial experience...was outstanding. Your leadership abilities...have been impressive. There is sound reasoning for my full confidence in you as a justice."
Mary S. Coleman
Chief Justice 1978-82

Judge Weaver has been recognized in many ways for her public service, including selection as one of five outstanding young women in Michigan by the Michigan Jaycees. It is a pleasure for myself to recognize Judge Weaver as a capable and devoted public servant.
G. Mennen Williams
Chief Justice 1982-86