In a democracy, public trust in the judiciary serves as the cornerstone of legitimacy for our legal system. Yet this trust is increasingly strained in family courts, where life-altering decisions about child custody, domestic violence protections, and family dissolution occur daily.
Our judicial performance evaluation initiative represents a vital bridge between the public and the judiciary. Rather than undermining judicial independence, this survey framework creates a structured channel for citizens to provide meaningful feedback on judicial conduct, knowledge, and temperament. By focusing on observable behaviors aligned with established American Bar Association guidelines, we offer judges constructive insights while providing transparency to the public.
By collecting and analyzing patterns of performance, we aim to strengthen public confidence in the judiciary while supporting judges’ professional development in these critical areas. In each state we collect individual judicial evaluations, then develop reports of the results and make them available to the public. The public deserves information to make decisions when voting.
Ultimately, a robust judicial evaluation system serves everyone: judges gain valuable feedback for improvement, the public gains greater confidence in judicial decisions, and most importantly, families and children receive more informed, consistent, and compassionate treatment in our courts.
This survey is a citizen-driven initiative to collect and amplify the voices of those who have experienced the family court system across the United States. This is not an academic research study, but rather a grassroots movement to document patterns and trends in family court experiences across all 50 states.
Take note: The use of google forms for surveys does require a gmail, but after you login, you will see how the survey information is set to not collect emails so respondents can remain anonymous.