Judgement Day

Statewide there are 78 judges seeking another term.

3 on the Court of Appeals and 75 at the District Court level. These Judges serve 6 year terms.

There are no Judges up for retention on the Supreme Court. These Judges serve 8 year terms.

The Iowa State Bar Association released its ratings on Judges on the ballot for retention. The ISBA and the Judicial Branch of Iowa promote this as an evaluation of Judges for the voters.

This years evaluation is based on 2,240 survey forms completed by members of the ISBA. I have asked the ISBA how many total members they have and have yet to receive a response.

The ISBA members who responded ranked Judges on a scale of 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree) on 10 questions. The 11th was if the Judge should be retained.

1) Knowledge and application of the law
2) Perception of factual issues
3) Attentiveness to arguments and testimony
4) Temperament and demeanor
5) Clarity and quality of written opinions
6) Promptness of rulings and decisions
7) Avoids undue personal observations or criticisms of litigants, judges and lawyers from bench or in written opinions
8) Decides cases on basis of applicable law and fact, not affected by outside influence
9) Is courteous and patient with litigants, lawyers and court personnel
10) Treats people equally regardless of race, gender, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status or disability
11) Retention

At the Court of Appeals level John C. Miller received 96% on the question of retention, Anuradha Vaitheswaran received 95% and Van D. Zimmer 97%.

What I find interesting is that only 162 responded to the retention question for Miller, 191 for Vaitheswaran and 207 for Zimmer.

In my 5a District; Darrell Goodhue received 98% for retention, Peter A. Keller 95%, Richard Clogg, 96%, Virginia Cobb 93%, Thomas W. Mott 73% and Kevin A. Parker 100%.

The number of repsondents to the retention question for Goodhue 124, Keller, 110, Clogg 51, Cobb 42, Mott 63 and Parker 36.

The Ragister ran the press release, regarding this survey, with the headline "Bar association gives high marks to judges".

They need to put in a few minutes work and give the whole story!

As for me, I go with the advice my Dad gave me about voting....Vote NO on all the Judges.


**********UPDATE**********


I did hear back from the ISBA about their membership...

The Iowa State Bar Association is a voluntary Bar Association. Current
membership count for both in and out of state is 8,071.

Mary Hill
Iowa State Bar Association
Membership Director / Foundation Liaison

I've asked her how many in state members there are and have yet to receive a response.