Judicial retention election results released

The Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice released the results of the retention elections that were published in the November 3, 2010 edition of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin.

In the one contested race, the Democrat, Daniel Gallagher, will become a Cook County Circuit Judge. Of the retention-seeking judges, all were retained. However, there were substantial differences in the percentage of “yes” votes among these judges.

It is important that judges know that the voting public is looking at the published evaluations of their judicial performance and that many vote accordingly. It is also important that the judicial evaluations be utilized in the future in an effort to improve the quality of the Cook County judiciary. For example, the Judicial Performance Commission of Cook County is planning a court watching effort for those judges found either Not Recommended for retention or found Recommended but with an indication that their judicial performance should improve. The Commission will also ask the Circuit Court to provide peer mentoring and/or continuing education for these 22 judges, and intends to re-evaluate these judges prior to the time they will have the opportunity to seek retention again.