DDeciding who to vote for among candidates seeking to be a Superior Court judge is notoriously difficult for those of us who do not know the ins and outs of the judicial system.
Superior Court judges have the power to make decisions in county criminal and civil cases, and resolve appeals for small claims and misdemeanors.
There is little public information about judicial candidates due to small campaign budgets and often sparse campaign websites. And, of course, these are non-partisan seats, so you can’t simply vote for a candidate from your preferred political party. Figuring out what values someone might bring to the courtroom is no easy task.
For that reason, the Los Angeles County Bar Association The Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) evaluates the candidates for the Superior Court in each election. Your goal is to extract information and distill those findings into a score that can help you make a choice. As one of the only consistent pieces of information voters can find about judicial candidates, those ratings can be very influential, similar to newspaper recommendations. We include the ratings in our guide to the races for Los Angeles Superior Court judges, for example. But how does the Bar Association prepare these qualifications? Here’s what you need to know.
What is LACBA?
LACBA is a voluntary bar association, meaning it is a private organization that legal professionals can choose to join, unlike the state bar association. The Los Angeles County Association is a nonprofit organization that focuses on providing resources to its more than 16,000 members, as well as legal help for people who cannot afford it.
What is the evaluation process like?
In this election, thirty-eight people from judicial election evaluation committee from LACBA took charge of the evaluation process. The assessment involves many conversations with candidates via phone, email, and interviews.
All candidates receive a questionnaire to start the process.
Meanwhile, the committee looks at a candidate’s background, including time unemployed, past cases and non-work activities. Hours are dedicated to in-depth research and conversations with each candidate and their references. The committee will investigate the candidates’ complete employment history since they turned 21 years old. Candidates are asked 29 questions that address a variety of topics, including:
- What courts and law firms have they worked in?
- Cases in which they have attempted to obtain a verdict or sentence
- If they have been sued for malpractice or disciplined for ethical violations
- What are they doing to stay up to date with the law if they have not practiced in the last five years?
On top of that, candidates are asked for 75 references who can attest to their skills and experience. Yes, 75. These are professional references, usually lawyers and judges with whom they have interacted in the last 10 years.
These references are interviewed. The group asks about the person’s skills, personality and experience, such as whether the candidate is active in the community, what biases they may have, and how much of their work the person serving as their reference has reviewed. Evaluation committee members look for concrete facts and details, not just general opinions, which LACBA says It is crucial to determine how to weight positive and negative interviews.
When it comes time to interview the candidate, which occurs after most of the reference interviews have been conducted, each candidate has the opportunity to speak for at least an hour with a subcommittee. They review things like aspirations and past cases. If committee members learn of any negative details in advance, the candidate receives notice about two days in advance. That happens because the interview is when the committee asks about problems.
The full committee votes on a tentative rating for each individual candidate after reviewing the findings. There are four options to choose from: “Exceptionally Well Qualified,” “Well Qualified,” “Qualified,” or “Not Qualified.”
Anyone who has participated in the process and has received one of the last two ratings can appeal and send more information. An appeal allows them to have a half-hour meeting with the full committee to present their case. Anyone who is classified as “Not Qualified” receives a letter detailing the problems the group encountered. Sometimes appeals can result in a new grade, which could be better or worse.
What do the ratings mean?
Exceptionally well rated
This qualification means that a person has such notable qualities that there is really no doubt about his or her abilities in court. To obtain that rating, more than 75% of the committee (present at the time of the vote) must agree, according to the committee manual.
Well qualified
This qualification means that a person has the “professional ability, experience, competence, integrity and temperament” to be a highly qualified judge. More than 60% of voting committee members must agree.
Qualified
This qualification means that a person has the qualities to perform as a judge satisfactorily. More than 50% of voting committee members must agree.
Not qualified
This qualification means that the person lacks one or more of the qualities that are key to performing satisfactorily as a judge. Any candidate who does not receive enough votes to achieve the rating of “Qualified” or higher obtains this rating.
How do I know the ratings are fair?
LACBA ratings are one of the few resources for judicial elections in Los Angeles County; even our Voter Game Plan guide cites it. Although the investigations it conducts on candidates are confidential, its rules and processes are publicly available.
“We give them the opportunity to just inform us, tell us where we went wrong,” Jerry Abeles, who was the committee chair in 2022, told LAist that year. “Tell us if we forgot anything or tell us about more people we can talk to about your qualifications. “Sometimes we have trouble finding anyone who has ever dealt with the candidate.”
Some 2022 candidates criticized the qualification process, questioning whether candidates who identify as women of color and/or whose experience is on the defense side are being fairly evaluated by the LACBA committee, which is dominated by white men, prosecutors and corporate lawyers. Those concerns about bias have continued into the 2024 election.
Abeles said there were times when a candidate did not collaborate with the committee. In those cases, the committee moves forward with evaluations and uses any information it can obtain. (And the evaluation report of the committee indicates who did not participate).
Some of the procedures are modeled after the California State Bar Nominee Reviewsso vetting is done at higher levels when the governor makes judicial appointments. LACBA assessments are independent of the eligibility standards of the California Constitution, which they only require that someone be a member of the State Bar or have worked in a court for 10 years before running for office.
If there are concerns about conflicts of interest, candidates may request that certain individuals not participate in their evaluation. Committee members cannot say publicly or privately that they support a candidate or join an organization that is lobbying to help someone win or lose. They also cannot donate money or services to candidates.
Abeles said committee members reflect different roles, levels of experience and backgrounds. There are civil litigators, criminal defense attorneys, prosecutors, people from firms of different sizes and those who practice law alone — all on the committee because of their reputation and willingness to commit hours of work.
Do you have more questions about how judicial candidates are evaluated? Ask them below and we’ll send you an answer.
