Policy Brief on Judicial Evaluations
Since 2010, the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice has managed a Pilot Project for judicial evaluation: the Judicial Performance Commission of Cook County. This demonstration project explores the feasibility of using the performance commission model to evaluate judicial retention candidates to positive feedback from attorneys and some sitting judges. We have concluded two election-year evaluations and have begun the first of two mid-term evaluations and will use those experiences to examine the best practices for judicial evaluation and advocate for changes to how judges are evaluated and retained in Illinois.
This year two different bills to reform the judicial retention process in Illinois were introduced in the state legislature. The House bill proposes a “merit retention” scheme and the Senate bill raises the minimum approval rating needed for judges to retain their seats. Neither bill made much headway this term, but working groups are continuing to press the measures.
In light of our Pilot Project and the on-going public scrutiny of our judicial election processes, Chicago Appleseed has released a Policy Brief on Best Practices for Judicial Evaluations. The brief examines models for judicial performance evaluation established by the American Bar Association and the Institute for the Advancement of American Legal Studies, as well as long-running judicial performance commissions at work in Colorado and Arizona. The paper also considers our experience developing and managing the Pilot Project for judicial evaluation.