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Supreme Judicial Court Seeks Lawyer Response
in Evaluation of Judges in Essex County
As
part of the continuing program to evaluate and enhance
judicial performance, the Supreme Judicial Court recently
sent questionnaires to attorneys and court employees
in Essex County. Jurors who participate in trials will
receive questionnaires upon completion of their jury
duty for the next several months. Forty-five judges will
be evaluated in the District Court, Juvenile Court, Superior
Court, Housing Court, and Probate and Family Court.
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
The
Supreme Judicial Court requests that attorneys who receive
questionnaires complete and return them to the Court
as soon as possible, as the success of the evaluation
program depends upon timely responses. A high rate of
participation provides judges with fair and complete
evaluations. Lawyers who have appeared in court multiple
times in Essex County in the last two years, according
to computerized court records, have received questionnaires.
The deadline for returning the paper questionnaire is
July 9; the electronic questionnaire is due on July 14.
Questionnaires
are being sent via email to 4700 attorneys and by mail
to 350 attorneys. If an attorney wishes the Supreme Judicial
Court to have their email address for conducting evaluations
in the future, email addresses can be registered at http://judeval.sjc.state.ma.us/?go=reg.
The
judicial evaluation program, which began in 2001, is
now in its third round of evaluations in counties throughout
the Commonwealth. Attorneys whose email addresses are
known to the Supreme Judicial Court receive an invitation
inviting them to use the evaluation website and are given
a username and password. All questionnaires (both paper
and electronic) are confidential and do not request the
names of respondents. The resulting reports are also
confidential and are given only to the judge being evaluated
and to the appropriate Chief Justices.
Inquiries
concerning questionnaires and evaluations should be directed
to Mona Hochberg, Supreme Judicial Court Judicial Performance
Evaluation Coordinator, at (617) 557-1156, or via email
at mona.hochberg@sjc.state.ma.us
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