This report details survey findings from judges across eight states—Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Utah, and Virginia—revealing their perspectives on judicial performance evaluation (JPE) processes in their states today, what is working well, and challenges with their programs.
National Perspectives on Judicial Performance Evaluation aims to fill a key gap in the existing research by offering the much-needed perspective of judges. The results from this survey provide critical insights from those most affected by and intimately familiar with JPE programs, and they provide a roadmap for states to improve their JPE programs. Judges’ perspectives on JPE present a vision of a fairer, more effective, and more useful evaluation process.
This study, paired with the perspectives of JPE stakeholders that IAALS has gathered from across the country, will inform updated recommendations and best practices to guide JPE programs into the future. Coming soon, these recommendations will equip states to improve and optimize their JPE programs, and make them work better for all involved—the judges, the program administrators, and the public.
