The VBA Journal is the official publication of The Virginia Bar Association.
Issue link: http://vba.epubxp.com/i/815343
26 • VBA JOURNAL that you display that you don't even know that you're displaying, or you're uncertain whether your recitation to the litigants is clear. You have no idea of how you're being perceived by the court users. is evaluation gives us an opportunity to get feedback from the court users. I think that's the importance of the program." Powell is one of three individuals who will be evalu- ated through a pilot program for appellate judges. e others are Chief Justice Lemons and Judge Teresa M. Chafin, who sits on the Court of Appeals of Virginia and serves as chair of the Appellate Evaluation Subcommittee of the JPE Program Advisory Committee. Once this evaluation program has been tested and tweaked, evaluations will begin for all appropriate appellate judges in 2018. Typically, the only time judges find out how well they're doing when it comes to the law is when their cases are appealed. Most cases aren't appealed because the majority of defendants either do not have the means or feel strongly enough about a decision to do so, Powell said. "e purpose of the JPE is to get a broader perspec- tive of the judge and how the judge is doing," she said. LAWMAKERS RELY ON EVALUATIONS Beyond the Judicial Performance Evaluations, the General Assembly considers only a few factors in re-electing judges. Lawmakers look at whether the judge has had any legal issues, such as an arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence, or a sexual harassment complaint through the Judicial Inquiry and Review Commission. Legislators also consider written or oral testimony from citizens and the judge's own comments when interviewed by a panel of lawmakers. But typically, Albo said, citizens speak only when they are unhappy with a judge's decision. Powell said she believes that attorneys, compared to the average citizen, are uniquely positioned to evaluate judges because of their training and understanding of the law and how the court system should work. "It should not be personal to them," she said. "ey should be able to give an honest, objective evaluation of the judges." Sometimes, those evaluations point out deficiencies. "Two years ago, we canned four or five judges based on these evaluations because their performance results were below 50 percent," Albo said. "at's pretty bad when you consider that these judges had term and then during the last year of their term. Judicial terms vary from six years to eight years, depending on the court. New judges also are evaluated after their first year on the bench. e first-year and midterm evaluations are seen only by the judge being evaluated and a facilitator assigned to the judge. Facilitators are retired judges who observe the evaluated judge for a half-day in court, and then meet with that judge to review his or her evaluation report. Results from the end-of-term evaluations, on the other hand, are open to the public and are sent to the General Assembly, where they are used to help legislators decide which judges should be re-elected. "It's important that we get responses from attorneys to help with both these processes: to help the judges identify ways they can improve and then to inform the General Assembly about how the judge is performing," Davis said. She added that the program anticipates evaluating 170 judges this year. About 50 of them will be end- of-term evaluations. e eligibility survey takes at most only a couple of minutes to answer and less time than that for attorneys who do not appear before Virginia judges. e performance evaluation also does not take long to complete, she said. e first-year and midterm evaluations invite attor- neys to write in comments, but respondents should be careful not to disclose their identities, Davis advised. ey also should be mindful that only the judge being evalu- ated and the facilitating judge will see their comments. FEEDBACK IS IMPORTANT Justice Cleo Powell of the Supreme Court of Virginia, who chairs the JPE Program Advisory Committee, witnessed firsthand the benefits of receiving feedback through the program. Powell experienced the evaluation process as a circuit judge when the program was in the pilot stage. She said she found it helpful because it gave her confirmation that she was doing quite a few things right, but also provided helpful information on areas of improve- ment. She received a written report and met with a facilitating judge. "e life of a judge is pretty isolated," Powell said. "Obviously, we can see the faces of the litigants when they're disappointed with our rulings, but we can't be certain of how we're doing. Perhaps there are habits