The Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, JPEC, provides a way for the public to learn more about Utah judges and make informed decisions when filling out a ballot. JPEC has provided information about judges for the past 10 years, but the state has developed a more efficient and accessible portal for voters to use this year.
Jennifer Yim is the executive director of JPEC and said it’s hard for people to know about judges unless they’re in court all the time, and JPEC wants to help.
“JPEC provides two evaluations. The first one is a confidential midterm evaluation that helps the judge to identify areas where they may need to make some improvements or adjustments, and then the retention evaluation is done for an election."
If a judge decides to seek retention, an evaluation gets published on JPEC’s website. Yim said the Utah judicial system is one of the best merit selection and retention systems in the U.S. because judges know what is needed to improve.
“We look at how quickly a judge makes rulings when taking cases under advisement and look at whether they have any judicial discipline, anything sanctioned by the Utah Supreme Court. We look at their judicial education requirements and whether they have fulfilled those to keep current on the law and other aspects of running a court well.”
Yim said there are several reasons the public should know whether a judge is qualified to serve.
“The partisan appointment of judges requires judges to run in contested elections and collect and raise funds from the lawyers and others who appear in their court. [This] poses a great potential for compromising impartiality in a court setting. [They also have] lifetime appointments without a mandatory retirement age or any sort of feedback or accountability to the public.”
She said the system helps hold judges accountable to the citizens they serve and motivates them to improve their performance on the bench.
Yim said JPEC isn’t telling people how to vote. She said the commission evaluates whether judges meet acceptable professional and ethical standards.
“If a judge wants to serve another term of office, then their information goes on our website. The flip side of that is if the judge decides to resign or retire and leave the bench, their information does not go on to the website. Virtually every judge who has a negative outcome from JPEC in the history of the commission has chosen to resign or retire, so voters really are seeing a self-selection going on.”
Ballots were mailed out on October 17, and election day is November 8.
