Transparent Courthouse Revisited

Since opening its doors in 2006, IAALS has been at the forefront of efforts to improve and expand programs for evaluating the on-the-bench performance of judges, and we have earned a reputation as the “go to” group for research, recommendations, and practical assistance in the judicial performance evaluation (JPE) field.

Based on our extensive work in this area over the last decade, the research IAALS and others have conducted, and our interactions with JPE programs around the country through our JPE Working Group, we have learned much about what works well—and what does not work as well—in evaluating judges’ performance.

In 2016, we felt it was time to update the JPE blueprint we first offered in 2006 in our Transparent Courthouse publication. Transparent Courthouse Revisited: An Updated Blueprint for Judicial Performance Evaluation provides that update, offering a menu of recommended practices and tools for designing and implementing a judicial performance evaluation program that fosters legitimacy in the eyes of the public and the judges.