Current Projects
Judicial Performance Evaluation
An array of recent public opinion surveys indicate that the level of public cynicism toward the nation’s judiciary is unacceptably high. Given this, IAALS believes that it is incumbent upon nation’s courts and judges to demonstrate their commitment to transparency and accountability. IAALS is advocating strong judicial performance evaluation (JPE) standards in every state as an important part of the formula to increase public confidence in our judiciary and to help judges identify areas for training and professional development.
Many of our initiatives are concentrated in the area of public education including: 1) national working group calls/conference to share information and experience with a network of individuals and organizations interested in establishing or improving JPE in their state; 2) IAALS-authored articles and research reports; 3) outreach to media to solicit stories on this issue; 4) speeches and presentations to national audiences on this topic.
Our remaining work in this area focuses on policy impact and includes: 1) oral testimony presented to legislatures in states evaluating a change to their JPE process; 2) evaluation of opportunities to introduce JPE into the federal system.