Updated:
I’m not spending much time at the courthouse this week, because I’m deep in data, wading through our biennial evaluation of Sedgwick County District Court judges.
They were published today. The online presentation includes an interactive comparison of the survey.
Many of you are on the edge of your seats, I know, to find out how your judges have performed the past two years, according to the lawyers who appear before them. We also have lawyers rank the judicial candidates, so this has become a strong tool for people before they enter the voting booths. As many know, judicial candidates have their own gag order, so they can’t really campaign. This project is a pretty good barometer of what those in the legal community think.
This year we had 311 lawyers participate, compared to 246 in our initial effort in 2006. That’s a 26.4 percent increase. Can you tell I’m working with data all week?
The Eagle and the Wichita Bar Association partner together every two years to evaluate judicial performance. Lawyers log into the WBA Web site and fill out the survey anonymously.
The results will appear in Sunday’s Eagle and on Kansas.com – and I’m hustling to make deadline.