Many judicial candidates unqualified,
law group says

By Rob Johnson
ABC 7 Chicago
Published March 1, 2006

The March primaries are just around the corner and close to 100 candidates are running for Cook County Circuit Court. But there is concern that a lot of candidates for judges may not be qualified for the bench.

It is a consortium of 10 bar associations known as the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening. Its mission is to send out questionnaires to judge candidates to determine their qualifications. But more and more frequently, candidates are refusing to cooperate, some say because the process is unfair. The alliance believes this is cheating the voters out of vital information.

The Alliance of Bar Associations believes the best type of voter is an informed voter. That's why it spends so much time sending out these sixteen page questionnaires to judicial candidates.

"We want to know, What is this experience level of this candidate?" said Malcolm Rich, Chicago Council of Lawyers.

It asks a candidate such things as the type of law they practice, when they were admitted to the bar, jury trial experience, even the state of their health. But according to the alliance, fewer are answering the questionnaire. In fact, of the 73 circuit court candidates on March 21, 21 were deemed not qualified and 18 didn't even respond, which earned them a not recommended rating.

On its web site, the Chicago Council of Lawyers lists each candidate as well qualified, qualified, not qualified or not recommended.

Of those who were not recommended, we asked several why they did not participate.

One said, "I was told it was in my best interest not to fill out these things."

Another said, "I don't know how much weight it has except in the legal community, and it's not the legal community I'm worried about, it's the voters of Cook County."

Yet another stated, "I think the requirements they ask for are unreasonable."

The alliance's Malcolm Rich thinks not participating is a grave injustice to the voters.

"It is an inexact science and there's subjectivity involved with it. Is it the absolute ideal? No. Is it the best we have at the moment? Yes," Rich said.

For those who believe that voters don't pay attention to the recommendations, Rich points to their web site vote for VoteForJudges.org, which he says received a million hits during the 2004 election cycle.

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