26 state judges' evaluations good or better

Advertiser Staff

Twenty-six state judges received good or better evaluations on average in the ninth Judicial Performance Program report released by Hawai'i Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Moon.

The report, released last week, is based on evaluations last year of eight Circuit Court, eight Family Court and 10 District Court judges.

The Circuit Court judges averaged a little over 4 points on a 5-point scale for criteria such as legal ability, judicial management skills, comportment and settlement and/or plea agreement ability.

The Family Court and District Court judges received similar marks.

The scores of individual judges who were evaluated are not available to the public, but are provided to the Judicial Selection Commission upon request.

All currently eligible justices and full-time judges have been evaluated at least once since Moon established the program in September 1993 as a way to improve individual performances, increase the efficiency of judicial management and provide the Judicial Selection Commission with information for retention and promotion decisions.

The public portion of the report can be found at www.courts.state.hi.us as well as the Supreme Court Law Library on O'ahu and Circuit Court law libraries on the Neighbor Islands.