The following information is provided to assist General Assembly members in understanding the Judicial Performance Evaluation Reports and the methods used to conduct the evaluations.

Please note that each judge’s evaluation is unique and is not directly comparable to other judges’ evaluation reports. Judges have also had at least one interim performance evaluation for selfimprovement purposes. The interim evaluation is confidential and “shall not be disclosed" by the judge. Code of Virginia § 17.1-100(C).

Here are some factors you may wish to consider:

• All judges were evaluated by attorneys. However, depending on the type of court, there are additional respondent groups. With the exception of jurors, all responses are aggregated in the reports. Circuit court judge reports show juror responses separately from all other respondent groups.

o Judges at all trial court levels were also evaluated by bailiffs and court reporters who served in their courtrooms. Some judges had few of these respondents; others had several. A few judges did not have any bailiffs surveyed because the local sheriff did not provide contact information for bailiffs. Some judges had no court reporters surveyed because the JPE Program was not able to identify any court reporters who worked in the judge’s courtroom.

o Circuit Court judges were evaluated by jurors; however, some judges did not receive any juror survey responses -- either because no jury trials were conducted during the relevant time period, or the jurors chose not to respond.

o Circuit Court judges were also evaluated by in-court clerk’s office staff. There was variability in numbers of staff surveyed because of the way the clerks’ offices are managed. A few clerks did not provide any staff contact information.

• For Circuit Court judges, respondents are asked to rate the judge based on experiences with the judge during the previous three years. For District Court judges, respondents are asked to rate the judge based on experiences with the judge during the previous 12 months.

• Efforts are made to survey a large number of individuals; however, this is a voluntary process. While the responses received are not necessarily representative of all potential respondents, each judge’s report accurately reflects the responses actually received for that judge.

• Judges receive evaluations from attorneys who have appeared before the specific judge. Thus, the judges within a single circuit or district may be evaluated by different attorneys, and there will be individual differences in how attorneys rate judges. Also, there may be regional differences in how groups of attorneys tend to rate judges.

• The number of attorneys surveyed is not uniform. Generally, there are fewer attorneys to survey for judges who preside in rural areas. Each judge’s report lists how many total surveys were completed for that judge.

• For judges who have a very high number of potential attorney respondents, only a sample of those respondents is surveyed (approximately 250). For judges in more rural jurisdictions, all identified eligible attorneys may be surveyed if there are less than 250 potential respondents identified.

• In order to be eligible to complete an evaluation, an attorney must have appeared before the evaluated judge at least one time in the applicable time period.

• Judges preside in different environments.

o Some sit every day in one location; others travel to several different courts during the week.

o Judges in different districts or circuits may hear very different types of cases. Even within a single district or circuit, some judges may hear a certain type of case (i.e., criminal) more than other judges do.