Survey Methodology
The Kansas Judicial Evaluation Committee (KJEC) conducted an evaluation of the Kansas judges and justices of the state’s appellate courts (our Court of Appeals and Supreme Court) who will sit for retention election this year. The evaluation took the form of a survey. The KJEC sent an email invitation to participate in this survey evaluation to all licensed attorneys, law professors and all judges in Kansas – more than 11,000 people. The online survey software provided a unique and anonymous survey access link to each participant in order to ensure the survey was completed by invited participants only and that each participant was able to complete the survey only once. To ensure that the results were meaningful, KJEC also asked the individuals to respond to the survey only if they had appeared before, worked with, or relied upon the work of at least one of the judges/justices under evaluation. Because most attorneys do not appear before our appellate courts, or practice law in a way that regularly relies on these courts’ rulings, most eligible attorneys chose not to participate in the survey. The total number of responses was 1,264. Those attorneys who chose to participate did so under the honor system, anonymously, and without compensation or acknowledgement.
This is not a statistical study. The KJEC did not purposely survey a random, representative sample of attorneys. Hence, the results presented here do not represent the opinions of the bar (all the attorneys in the state) as a whole. These results only capture the experiences and opinions of those attorneys familiar with the work of the judges under evaluation at this time. Not every attorney who did respond had experience with every judge under evaluation, so the number of respondents varies from judge to judge. Even so, there were more than 100 separate evaluations for almost all judges sitting for retention election. Given the high level of participation, KJEC believes that collectively these responses do provide useful information to Kansas voters.
The questions in the survey were derived from those used by the Commission on Judicial Performance, a defunct state commission once charged with regularly conducting judicial evaluations. The KJEC modified the survey to reflect the population being surveyed – attorneys – and the aim of this process – informing voters. Because perspectives differ, participants who are practicing attorneys and law professors answered one set of questions, while those who serve as judges answered a slightly different set of questions. The KJEC sorted these responses and the two sets are presented in the full data report.
If you have any questions about the survey or our methodology, please send an email to CourtEval@ksbar.org.
This is not a statistical study. The KJEC did not purposely survey a random, representative sample of attorneys. Hence, the results presented here do not represent the opinions of the bar (all the attorneys in the state) as a whole. These results only capture the experiences and opinions of those attorneys familiar with the work of the judges under evaluation at this time. Not every attorney who did respond had experience with every judge under evaluation, so the number of respondents varies from judge to judge. Even so, there were more than 100 separate evaluations for almost all judges sitting for retention election. Given the high level of participation, KJEC believes that collectively these responses do provide useful information to Kansas voters.
The questions in the survey were derived from those used by the Commission on Judicial Performance, a defunct state commission once charged with regularly conducting judicial evaluations. The KJEC modified the survey to reflect the population being surveyed – attorneys – and the aim of this process – informing voters. Because perspectives differ, participants who are practicing attorneys and law professors answered one set of questions, while those who serve as judges answered a slightly different set of questions. The KJEC sorted these responses and the two sets are presented in the full data report.
If you have any questions about the survey or our methodology, please send an email to CourtEval@ksbar.org.