NOTICE
Supreme Judicial Court’s Judicial Performance Evaluation Program to Resume with Evaluations of Judges in Essex County, Middlesex County District Courts, the Boston Municipal Court, and the Chelsea District Court
The Supreme Judicial Court will resume its program of soliciting judicial performance evaluations from attorneys, court employees, and jurors in October 2024. Judges who sat in any Essex County Court, Middlesex County District Court, the Boston Municipal Court, or the Chelsea District Court in the last two years will be evaluated. The program was temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Judicial Performance Evaluation Program allows members of the bar, court employees, and jurors to provide anonymous, confidential feedback about judges both to the judges themselves and to court leadership. Beginning in early October, attorneys will receive an email inviting them to complete a questionnaire about each judge before whom they were scheduled to appear in the preceding two years. Attorneys will be directed to an encrypted website where they can respond to questionnaires anonymously.
The questionnaire solicits attorneys’ views on judicial qualities, including legal knowledge; temperament; control of the courtroom; treatment of courtroom participants; and clarity of communication. Attorneys are encouraged to complete the questionnaires as soon as possible, as the success of the Judicial Performance Evaluation Program depends both upon timely responses and a high rate of participation to provide judges with fair and comprehensive feedback about their judicial performance.
Court employees and jurors will also be asked to respond to questionnaires regarding judges they have observed.
Questionnaire responses are anonymous. Judges will not receive copies of completed questionnaires. Instead, responses submitted about each judge will be aggregated into a single confidential evaluation report, which will be shared with the judge being evaluated. Judges discuss evaluation reports with their Chief Justice with the goal of fostering professional development and self-improvement.