Thanks for your comments, Jordan, and we appreciate that you may disagree
with the Board's decision to modify the judicial evaluation process. I do
want to make you aware, however, that the HCBA will still be conducting a
judicial survey and all members of the association will be allowed to
participate and provide feedback for judges on an annual basis, rather than
only once every six years. We are hopeful that this feedback, unlike the
results from the earlier judicial surveys, will substantially improve
judicial performance. While I disagree that we only modified the judicial
evaluation process to satisfy judges, I know some members such as yourself
feel that way and I certainly respect your opinion. Nonetheless, after
considerable study the HCBA's full board concluded that the existing survey
was not serving the public's needs as well as it believes the new system
will since the results for the old survey were published, if at all, in
only a very truncated format and, by and large, were, the Board found,
being ignored by or lost on the public. The HCBA board is hopeful that this
new process will get the public more involved and provide a better service
to lawyers, judges and the public.
We welcome the continued feedback of our members and I am happy to discuss
it further if you wish.
"Jordan
Kushner" To: "Melendez, Brian"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
<kushn002@um "Minneapolis Issues \(E-mail\)"
n.edu> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
07/03/2002 cc: "Brent E. Routman \(E-mail\)"
02:35 PM <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Duane Stanley
\(E-mail\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Jean F.
Holloway
\(E-mail\)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"Joan
M. Schulkers \(E-mail\)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"John M. Dornik \(E-mail\)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"Laurence Buxbaum \(E-mail\)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
"Marlene Garvis \(E-mail\)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Mpls] HCBA launches
judicial-evaluation website
While the statistical data about judges provided on the Hennepin County Bar
Association website is interesting and could be useful, it is still most
unfortunate that the HCBA governing council decided to do away with the
judicial evaluation surveys sent to lawyers in Hennepin County which
actually addressed attorney's opinions of the judgess performances. This
was the only mechanism for obtaining feedback from people who encounter the
judges on regular basis. Although there were limitations with this
process,
it was better for the public to have this information, as opposed to having
no information about how attorneys perceived the judges. This process had
been in place in election years from 1992-2000, and the only group that a
problem were most of the judges. The county bar association's duty to
perform a service to the public was overwhelmed by pressure to please the
judges.
Jordan Kushner
Minneapolis
----- Original Message -----
From: "Melendez, Brian" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Minneapolis Issues (E-mail)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "Brent E. Routman (E-mail)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Duane
Stanley (E-mail)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Jean F. Holloway (E-mail)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Joan M. Schulkers (E-mail)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "John M. Dornik (E-mail)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
"Laurence Buxbaum (E-mail)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Marlene Garvis (E-mail)"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 03, 2002 2:04 PM
Subject: [Mpls] HCBA launches judicial-evaluation website
> 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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