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Monday, September 01, 2008
Ind. Courts - Indiana appellate judges create retention website
As I wrote in this ILB entry on Friday, an item on the agenda of the Commission on Court's meeting Aug. 28th was: "Public access to information concerning retention elections for judges of the Indiana supreme court, court of appeals and tax court."
Judges Terry Crone and Cale Bradford appeared before the Commission on Courts to discuss with legislators what the judiciary is doing to insure a more informed electorate insofar as information for the voters asked to vote "yes" or "no" on this November's ballot re the retention of appellate judges is concerned.
The steps taken so far to make the courts and their work more accessible, they reported, include:
First, "Appeals on Wheels", where the Court of Appeals panels frequently meet outside their Statehouse courtroom, instead traveling to hold oral arguments at various locations around the State.
Second, the judges said, the COA has begun posting its Not for Publication (NFP) opinions online, noting that of the 2,800 opinions issued this year, approximately 2,100 are NFP.
A third step, to go into operation soon, will result from the installation of video equipment in the Court of Appeals Courtroom, so that all the COA Statehouse oral arguments will be watchable via a webcast.
Concerning specific information re judges up for retention, Judge Bradford said he had been assigned to spearhead that task, because at the time he was the newest member of the appellate bench. He said they had developed a site based on the concept of a one-stop retention website, consolidating existing information from a number of sources. Judge Bradford demonstrated the prototype that has been developed.
Links to all of the oral arguments of the judges up for retention will be available from the new site, as well as their every opinion, accessible both by the judge's name, and by subject matter. To do this, Judge Bradford explained, the Court will need to spend about $4,200 for a short-term contract with Lexis. The reason, as the ILB found out later, in response to an inquiry, is that the Court's own opinions database, the one available to the public, only goes back to 1999, not far enough to cover all the opinions of some of the court members, who have served well over 20 years.
Judge Bradford said the site would include a link to the Indiana State Bar Association's results of ISBA members' evaluations of judges.
One of the legislative members of the Commission on Courts noted that in the mock-up, some of the bios included which governor had appointed the judge, and some didn't. She asked that this information be included for every judge, as that was the first question that any voter asked her about a judge.
This new website is not yet available. In response to a question posed later by the ILB to a court representative, it will be available "soon." The ILB will provide a link as soon as the new site is up. The election is Nov. 4th.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 1, 2008 02:57 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts | Judicial Retention