Kansas Bar Association evaluates judges before retention vote – The Lawrence Times

TOPEKA – The seven Kansas judges up for retention have been evaluated by Kansas Bar attorneys for retention recommendations.

The average was an 86% retention recommendation, with a maximum score of 94% for Judge Sarah E. Warner. Warner was appointed as a Court of Appeals judge in 2019 and served as president of the KBA from 2018 to 2019. The lowest scoring judge was Judge G. Gordon Atcheson with 74%. Atcheson was appointed in 2010.

Judges were evaluated based on overall performance and 13 specific performance measures – such as punctuality and fairness. The questions posed by the KBA are similar to those of the Kansas Commission on Judicial Performance, which produced a similar survey of appellate and district court judges until 2013, when it was discontinued due to cost.

Tim O’Brien, a KBA attorney who worked on the survey, said the survey aims to provide the same coverage. But the KBA inquiry has a narrower scope of opinion – the group only interviewed lawyers, while the commission interviewed lawyers, jurors who appeared before the judges, the sheriffs and others who interacted with each judge.

Other groups have attempted to replicate the survey, and in 2014 KBA was part of a group that created one, but it has not been produced since.

“This is the first time we’ve taken the bull by the horns and said, ‘Let’s do it this time,’” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said the response from the previous effort indicated that voters appreciated the research. O’Brien said an election for judge is not like a normal election – after judges are appointed to a four-year term, voters decide whether they should be retained – meaning a yes or no vote. These judges are appointed by nonpartisan merit selection, so voters do not have automatic partisan nominations for them at the ballot box.

“These judges face difficult questions,” O’Brien said. “Sometimes they have to take a position based on the law that is contradictory to public opinion. It takes a certain amount of courage to do.”

Most voters do not follow each judge’s record to evaluate their performance. O’Brien said KBA lawyers were being asked about judges for retention and that he wanted to provide publicly accessible data to help voters make a choice.

Of the 16,000 lawyers the survey was sent to, O’Brien said about 300 responded. Lawyers were only supposed to respond about judges of whom they had “direct and personal knowledge.” Interviewees were kept anonymous to allow each lawyer to express their honest opinions.

O’Brien and the subcommittee dedicated to this research through the KBA have been working to initiate this project for a few years. O’Brien said he plans to make the survey an annual initiative.

The Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news agencies supported by donations and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact editor Sherman Smith with questions: [email protected]. Follow the Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.

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