News  Supreme Judicial Court's Judicial Performance Evaluation for Land Court Judges

As part of the ongoing program to evaluate and enhance judicial performance, the Supreme Judicial Court is now sending questionnaires to attorneys and court employees to evaluate Land Court judges. 

Attorneys will receive an email invitation to use the confidential, encrypted evaluation website and are given a username and password. 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. Questionnaires will be accepted by the Court through mid-July.

Among the categories covered in the evaluations are: a judge's knowledge of the law; temperament on the bench; courtroom control; treatment of courtroom participants; and issuing clear rulings. 

All responses are anonymous. The resulting reports are also confidential and are given only to the judge being evaluated and Chief Justice of the Land Court. The evaluation reports are then discussed in a meeting between the judge and the Land Court Chief Justice and taken into account for the judge’s professional development.

Please direct any inquiries concerning questionnaires and evaluations to Mona Hochberg, Supreme Judicial Court Judicial Performance Evaluation Coordinator, at (617) 557-1156, or by email at mona.hochberg@sjc.state.ma.us.