Supreme Judicial Court's Judicial
Performance Evaluation Committee
Seeks Lawyer Response in Evaluation of Suffolk County Judges
As
part of the ongoing program to evaluate and enhance judicial
performance, the Supreme Judicial Court's Judicial Performance
Evaluation Committee has sent questionnaires to attorneys
and court employees in Suffolk County. Jurors who participate
in trials will receive questionnaires upon completion
of their jury duty for the next several months. Forty-nine
judges will be evaluated in the Boston Municipal Court,
District Court, Juvenile Court, Housing Court, and Probate
and Family Court. (Superior Court Judges sitting in Suffolk
County will be evaluated at a later date.)
Attorneys
whose email addresses are known to the Supreme Judicial
Court receive an invitation to use the evaluation website
and are given a username and password. Out of the approximately
4,500 attorneys selected for the evaluation, close to
3,500 will be able to complete the evaluation on-line.
Attorneys can register their email address with the Supreme
Judicial Court for future evaluations at http://judeval.sjc.state.ma.us/?go=reg.
The
Judicial Performance Evaluation Committee requests that
attorneys who receive questionnaires complete and return
them to the Supreme Judicial Court as soon as possible,
as the success of the evaluation program depends upon
timely responses. A high rate of participation enables
the Committee to provide judges with fair and complete
evaluations. Lawyers who have appeared in court multiple
times in these counties during the last two years, according
to computerized court records, have received questionnaires.
The deadline for returning the paper questionnaire is
April 3, 2009; the electronic questionnaire is due by
April 10, 2009.
Among
the categories covered in the evaluations are: a judge's
knowledge of the law; temperament on the bench; courtroom
control; treatment of litigants, witnesses, jurors, and
attorneys; fairness and impartiality; and, timeliness
in issuing written decisions.
All
questionnaires, both paper and electronic, are anonymous;
the resulting reports are also confidential and are given
only to the judge being evaluated and to the appropriate
Chief Justices.
Since
the inception of the program in 2001, evaluation has
been conducted in all the counties in the Commonwealth.
Judges are now being evaluated for the third time.
Please
direct any inquiries concerning questionnaires and evaluations
to Mona Hochberg, Supreme Judicial Court Judicial Performance
Evaluation Coordinator, at (617) 557-1156, or via email
at mona.hochberg@sjc.state.ma.us For
other information, please contact Joan Kenney, Public
Information Officer, Supreme Judicial Court, at (617)
557-1113, or via email at joan.kenney@sjc.state.ma.us.
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