Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening releases evaluations of subcircuit candidates

The Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening is comprised of the Asian American Bar Association of the Greater Chicago Area (AABA), Black Women Lawyers’ Association of Greater Chicago (BWLA), Chicago Council of Lawyers (CCL), Cook County Bar Association (CCBA), Decalogue Society of Lawyers (DSL), Hellenic Bar Association (HBA), Hispanic Lawyers Association of Illinois (HLAI), Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago (LAGBAC), Puerto Rican Bar Association of Illinois (PRBA), and the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois (WBAI), working collaboratively to improve the process of screening judicial candidates in Cook County, Illinois.

You may need to refer back to these abbreviations from time to time as you review the "grids" put out by the Alliance representing the results of each group's investigation of each Cook County judicial candidate (those who were willing to submit their credentials for evaluation, anyway). You'll also need this key to understand the ratings issued by each Alliance member:

You will note some 'blanks' for a few candidates in the grids; where there are blank spaces, the organization in question has, for one reason or another, not completed its investigation of that candidate. As updated grids become available, I will have them here on FWIW.

Clicking on any image in this post may enlarge it or sharpen its focus depending on the device on which you are viewing this post.

Here, then, are the Alliance evaluations of candidates seeking judicial office in Cook County Subcircuits:






In the following grids, candidates in the Democratic Primary are listed with a "(D)" after their names, candidates in the Republican Primary are listed with an "(R)" after their names. If no party affiliation is indicated (as in all the grids above, or in the post below, the candidates are running in the Democratic Primary.



One Alliance bar group, the Chicago Council of Lawyers (CCL) issues written findings for each judicial candidate in addition to its ratings. The Council's explanations of its evaluations will be the subject of upcoming posts here on FWIW.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

By my count, there are a total of 81 circuit court judicial candidates. They are split with 26 running countywide and 55 running in the subcircuits. Of the 26 countywide candidates, 15 have all positive bar ratings. This comprises 57.6% of the total. Of the 55 subcircuit candidates, 30 have all positive bar ratings. This comprises 54.5% of the total. These calculations seem to reflect that the percentage of qualified candidates is consistent between the countywide and subcircuit candidates. In any event, there are a total of 45 candidates that have been found qualified/ recommended by all the bar associations. I believe these candidates have a great deal to be proud of as this seems to be no easy achievement.