I agree, Dawn, to what you've said. The survey will not remove a judge.

However, it's at least a bit helpful to see other people's perception of judges. The judge may have already changed posts, but if they haven't, a history of people's perceptions can be useful.

Going into all this, I found it very frusrating and a bit frightening that finding out about a lawyer or judge is so difficult! This is a rare "industry" where there is little or no guidance on someone's history that the average person can use. Sure...I could spend hours digging through records or calling different lawyers begging them to give me their impression of Judge So-and-so or Attorney So-and-so. But why is it this hard?

Seems to me that a good system would be to get the courts to accumulate the feedback of parties in each case (and the party's role in the case). We could then see what the person thought about the judge/attorney in their case. We could also see some info to help us understand that party's bias. A convicted defendant is less to provide positive feedback on a judge or attorney, right?

My basic point is that people should have SOME means to easily get a feel for their judge and their (current or potential or opposing) attorney. Most other licensed fields have a repository AT LEAST of complaints. Attorneys do. Why should judges?!

After all...despite what some would try to say about judges being unquestionable demi-gods, they are in the final measure all our employees.

Judges and attorneys are way too insulated in this secret priesthood. They need to be more accountable and their professional history needs to be (conveniently) transparent.