Since 1972, the King County Bar Association has conducted surveys of attorneys’ evaluations of the performance of judges, magistrates and commissioners to enhance judicial performance and inform the public and voters about the local judiciary. These surveys have been conducted in the fall every two years, alternating between a survey of the King County Superior Court and one of district and municipal courts. Each survey asked practicing attorneys to evaluate the judicial officers with whom they’d had sufficient personal experience in the preceding four years.
The 2007 KCBA survey of the King County Superior Court is now under way. While the manner in which attorneys have been asked to participate in the survey has evolved over the years, prior surveys consisted of a questionnaire that listed all judges and commissioners being evaluated. However, for the 2007 survey, both the survey questionnaire and the manner of its distribution to attorneys have changed. Individual attorneys shown in court records as appearing before a particular judge are being sent an email asking them to participate in the survey. The email contains a link to a Web-based survey questionnaire for the attorney to evaluate that particular judge.
An attorney who has appeared before multiple judges will receive a separate email providing a questionnaire for each individual judge. (An attorney who appears before the same judge more than once will only receive one survey email and, thus, will evaluate that judge only once.) Emails are being sent out on a staggered basis between now and the end of September to attorneys who have made King County Superior Court appearances in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Each electronic survey should take less than five minutes to complete. Your participation in the evaluation is completely voluntary. If you choose to participate, your responses will remain totally confidential and cannot be attributed to you in any manner.
The evaluation program is being conducted in collaboration with Washington State University. Surveys are being processed through a secure Web server, then delivered directly to WSU researchers. Your responses will be completely anonymous and will not be linked to your email or IP address in any way.
If you appeared before the King County Superior Court sometime during 2005, 2006 and 2007, but do not receive a survey email prior to September 15 about the judge or judges you appeared before, you may request one by sending an email to brody@wsu.edu, stating your name, WSBA number and the judge, date and cause number of your King County Superior Court appearance. Your appearance will be verified and you will be sent an email providing you with the survey questionnaire.
The evaluations are designed to educate the public about the many qualities that make a person a good judge, to assist citizens in casting more well-informed ballots in judicial elections and to help judges become better jurists by providing feedback about their performance from attorneys who have appeared in their courts.
The KCBA hopes that each attorney will take the five minutes that is needed to complete the survey for a judge. Your feedback is essential for providing information to voters regarding those serving on our bench. n Mike Ricketts chairs the KCBA Judicial Evaluation Committee. He is a graduate of Whitman College and the University of Washington School of Law, and practices insurance coverage and related litigation at Kingman Peabody Fitzharris & Ringer in Seattle. He promptly completes and returns judicial evaluation surveys he is asked to participate in.
