A few weeks ago, in response to questions posted by Michael Libby on
a thread titled "Watching the judges," I mentioned that the Hennepin County
Bar Association also evaluates judges and would be launching a three-year
experiment with a new judicial-evaluation process, including a website with
judge-by-judge information. I promised that I would follow up that message
when the new website had gone live. Here is the announcement about the new
website. The recommendation and report adopting the new process are
available online at http://www.hcba.org/news/news-home.htm.
(I ought to mention that, while I signed the enclosed message as
HCBA President, my term ended over the weekend. The new President is Jean F.
Holloway.)
BRM
Brian Melendez
St. Anthony West (Ward 3)
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Melendez, Brian
> Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 9:19 AM
> Subject: HCBA launches judicial-evaluation website
>
> The Hennepin County Bar Association is launching a three-year
> experiment with a new judicial-evaluation process, in which more
> information, and more relevant and useful information, will be available
> to the practicing bar and to the public. The Bar Association's
> leadership--whose Governing Council unanimously approved the new process
> in February, after a six-month study--hopes that this new process will
> dramatically better serve the essential purposes of judicial evaluation:
> informing the public about how well the community's judges are exercising
> their offices and upholding their public trust, and returning honest
> feedback to judges that will help them function as effectively as
> possible.
>
> I am writing in order to announce the launch of the new process's
> most visible feature: a website that allows "one-stop shopping" for
> information about each judge. This website will collect and publish hard
> factual data about judges' performance, including but not limited to--
>
> --how promptly the judge disposes of pending cases;
>
> --how often the judge disposes of cases by summary judgment,
> alternative dispute resolution, and other methods short of trial;
>
> --how often the judge gets removed from cases;
>
> --how often the judge's decisions are appealed from, and how often
> such appeals result in those decisions being affirmed or reversed; and
>
> --how often the judge attends or is absent from his or her judicial
> duties.
>
> This information has hitherto been unavailable in any meaningfully
> accessible form to the practicing bar, let alone the public. Furthermore,
> the old process surveyed lawyers about each judge only every sixth year,
> so that the information about a given judge might be years old. The new
> process will publish current information about every judge, updated
> regularly, so that the best available information about every judge will
> be as up-to-date as possible.
>
> To access "one-stop shopping" for a judge, please visit the
> Association's website at www.hcba.org. There you will find a wealth of
> information about your judge, much of it previously unavailable, and never
> before accessible through a single source:
>
> --biographical information about the judge, including the profile
> from The Hennepin Lawyer when the judge was first elevated to the bench;
>
> --objective statistics about the judge's performance, with links to
> statistics for the whole bench for purposes of comparison;
>
> --the judge's performance in past elections, plebiscites, and
> judicial evaluations;
>
> --practical information, furnished by the judge himself or herself
> based on standard questions, about how the judge manages cases and about
> procedure in his or her courtroom; and
>
> --links to basic information about the Court's organization and
> schedule, and the individual judge's experience within that structure.
>
> If the judge is being challenged for reelection, then the website will
> also publish information about the challenger.
>
> We are still awaiting information from some judges, and some links
> are still under construction, so please bear with us as we finish bringing
> the new process online. But the website as it stands will give you a good
> idea of what it will look like when it is complete. We hope that the new
> judicial-evaluation process, especially this new online resource, will
> bring a wealth of new and useful information into the public eye.
>
> BRM
>
> Brian Melendez, President,
> Hennepin County Bar Association
> E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Ph. 612.766.7309
>
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