ISBA releases its Cook County judicial candidate ratings

The Illinois State Bar Association has released its evaluations of candidates seeking judicial vacancies in Cook County in the 2022 election cycle. The charts follow almost immediately.

But, first, for those who may not be intimately familiar with the ratings process or are -- you know -- actual voters looking for information about judicial candidates in order to make informed voting decisions, we pause briefly to explain what these charts are intended to convey.

Judicial candidates are rated by ISBA Judicial Evaluation Committee members based on detailed information supplied by the candidates themselves, background checks by trained lawyer-investigators, and interviews of each candidate. The ISBA participates in the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Screening, pooling its resources with the other dozen members of the Alliance for joint evaluations.

Each Alliance member, however, makes its own separate determination on each candidate. As readers will see, therefore, it is sometimes the case that different Alliance members, though working from the same candidate questionnaires, and the same candidate investigations and interviews, will sometimes disagree on the merits of a particular candidate. (The Chicago Bar Association conducts a similar evaluation process on its own; it does not participate in the Alliance. Its evaluations will be out soon, too.)

For candidates participating in the evaluation process, the ISBA issues one of three ratings: "Highly Qualified", "Qualified", or "Not Qualified". Candidates who fail or refuse to participate in the evaluation are automatically rated "Not Recommended."

The ISBA says that its ratings "reflect the [Judicial Evaulation] Committee's opinion of whether candidates have the necessary qualifications for judicial service or ascension to a higher office and are not a reflection of the candidates' abilities as lawyers or judges."

In recent election cycles, the ISBA has released brief narratives explaining its ratings of individual candidates. FWIW has confirmed that the ISBA plans to release narratives in this election cycle as well. When these are available, we will have them. Meanwhile, here are the ISBA ratings (click on any image to enlarge or clarify):