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Supreme Judicial Court’s Judicial Performance Evaluation
Committee
Seeks Lawyer Response in Evaluation of Land Court 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 for judges in Land Court.
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
1,900 attorneys selected for the evaluation, over 1,400
will be able to complete the evaluation on-line. Attorneys
can register their email addresses 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 before the Land
Court during the last two years, according to computerized
court records, have received questionnaires. The deadline
for returning the paper questionnaire is November 21,
2008; the electronic questionnaire is due by December
3, 2008.
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 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.
Since
the inception of the program in 2001, evaluations have
been conducted in all of the counties and court departments.
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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