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Friday, October 31, 2008

Judge the judges

If you've ever voted, you know that the ballot is pretty easy to follow until you hit the part about state judges. If you, like me, assumed that judges were appointed by God, then hung around until he "removed" them — you're only partly correct.

The governor appoints judges, usually lawyer friends or friends of "friends." They do serve for life, but they periodically need a majority of "yes" votes from us slobs to retain their seats.

Since few of us know squat about the names on the ballot (sorry, no daytime TV judges are in the list), there are three ways to approach the judge retention challenge:

Vote them all back in. After all, only bad people have to deal with these guys anyway. (Boy Scout's choice.)
Vote 'em all out. Change is good. (Anarchist's choice.)
Rapidly dance your fingers down the touch screen, randomly voting "yes" or "no," until you run out of judges. (Putting the ball back in God's court.)

OK, there is a fourth way. Follow the recommendations of the people who have to work with the judges — lawyers. The Tribune offers a breakdown and explanation of attorney surveys of the judges. The lawyers — notorious butt smoochers — scored only four judges less than 70 percent (let's call it a D grade).

Seventh District Judge Lyle Anderson scored 63 percent for behavior free from impropriety, and 66 percent for behavior free from bias and favoritism.
Third District Judge John Kennedy scored 69 percent for understanding the rules of procedure and evidence, and 68 percent for perceiving legal and factual issues.
Third District Judge Denise Lindberg scored 68 percent for behavior free from bias and favoritism, and 64 percent for demonstrating appropriate demeanor.
Third District Juvenile Court Judge Andrew Valdez scored 68 percent for behavior free from bias and favoritism, and 69 percent for giving parties a fair opportunity to present the case. His overall favorable score was 76.

Remember, it's an election, not a test — you can take a cheat sheet in with you.

5 Comments:

At October 31, 2008 3:06 PM , Anonymous said...: Vote 'NO' to John R. Morris. He doesn't care if you get a fair trial or not--and he won't pay attention throughout the entire trial.
At October 31, 2008 9:40 PM , arc said...: I have in my district 3 judges that are about 75% overall. I am not voting to keep them.
At October 31, 2008 9:43 PM , Anonymous said...: Great. Now we have to trust the lawyers' ratings of other lawyers.

No thanks.

I'll keep not voting on these unless we get some real obvious ones, like the one two years ago who couldn't keep her anti-Mormon feelings to herself. Thank God she's gone.
At October 31, 2008 11:02 PM , arc said...: Anon,
No, you also get comments from the jury.

That said, if you have more than 1/2 of the attorneys give someone a failing grade (below 70%), you have someone to look out for. I typically toss those.
At November 1, 2008 5:47 AM , Anonymous said...: I'm an attorney who occasionally appears before Judge John Morris.

Although I've voted "no" on some judges, he's one I voted to keep.

I know several of my fellow members of the bar appreciate having a jurist of Judge Morris's intellect and temperament on the bench.

Like referees in sports, I want a judge who is fair. And so far I haven't seen anything in my admittedly limited interaction with Judge Morris to indicate that he is unfair.