Posted on 03/28/2005 10:58:56 AM PST by Crackingham
The Virginia General Assembly is altering how the state's 400 judges are reappointed, hoping to quell lawmakers' yearly disputes about which justices should be reconfirmed.
The new rules require that during their terms, judges submit to three evaluations by lawyers, jurors and retired judges. Written questionnaires will ask participants about the judges' demeanor on the bench, the quality of their explanations of opinions and their "professional behavior," among other criteria.
The "performance evaluations" system is one of the biggest changes in the history of the judiciary's reappointment process. It calls for every judge to be critiqued, including those on the Virginia Supreme Court.
Part of the goal is for judges to get direct feedback on their conduct, lawmakers and judges said. In addition, several legislators said, the assembly will be able to get "objective" information about a justice's professional conduct and legal acumen over time.
Judges in Virginia serve six-, eight- or 12-year terms, depending on the bench. The only evaluation most judges receive is when their term is about to expire and they are up for review by the General Assembly. Virginia is one of only two states in which only lawmakers select and reappoint judges.
"We've always had to deal with controversies during reappointment, and usually all we had to make a decision was anecdotal evidence," said Del. Robert F. McDonnell (R-Virginia Beach), a candidate for attorney general. "That's not fair to the judge and that's not fair to the General Assembly."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
bttt! They need a judicial review system with teeth in it in Florida and elsewhere too....
Congress should follow the Constitution and impeach a few federal judges. States should do the same where they can.
This boils down to a make-work scheme for lawyers and judges, who will certainly be paid for doing work legislators should be doing instead. Why shouldn't legislators do this work? We pay them to!
The whole legislative system has turned into a race to be least offensive, to ensure Congressmen and legislators do nothing that might get a power group pissed at `em.
That would be fine if we didn't have a government bloated enough that it'll be broke in the next 20 years.
Every judge should be subjected to 12 days of starvation and dehydration as a test of their worthiness to sit on the bench.
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