Issues of qualifications: Subcircuit judges often less touted
By Medill Watchdog and WGN Investigates
When four candidates vied for the vacant seventh subcircuit Cook County Court seat last year, one seemed to stand out.Arthur Wheatley already had been filling the seat for two years, after a temporary appointment from the Illinois Supreme Court. The former CTA lawyer won favorable ratings from all 12 bar groups that evaluated judicial Cook County candidates last year. A Chicago Tribune endorsement even called him a “star” candidate.
And all three of his opponents in the race were given largely unfavorable evaluations by the various bar groups. One of them, Kimberly D. Lewis, did not even submit materials to be considered by the evaluation committees.
Never mind the fact that lawyers’ groups agreed she should not be recommended for a seat. A record low number of voters bothered to turn out on an unseasonably warm March primary day last year. And when the smoke cleared, Lewis had won a seat with just 7,984 votes.
So it goes in the murky world of subcircuit judicial elections, where voters with little information and little interest choose judges who often end up serving for years on countywide seats.
Click to see how associations’ rated judges elected countywide in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
Even as the quality of the bench in Cook County has been greatly enhanced in recent years, as more exceptional judges win seats, Valukas said, the subcircuit system increases the risk of less qualified people winning judgeships.
The Chicago Bar Association, which creates independent committees to screen candidates, and the Chicago Council of Lawyers are two of the more rigorous among the variety of groups that evaluate judges. The lawyer’s council is a part of an alliance of bar groups – currently totaling 11, including the Cook County Bar Association and Illinois State Bar Association — that jointly invite judges to submit information and be interviewed, before each group in the alliance makes its own evaluations.
Larry Suffredin, who represents the Chicago Bar Association, said a greater percentage of problem judges over the last two decades come out of the subcircuits compared to other judges on the bench.
An analysis by Medill Watchdog/WGN comparing the countywide judges with judges elected from subcircuits confirms the problem. A far greater percentage of the judicial candidates who were rated “not qualified” or “not recommended” from at least three of the bar groups that take part in evaluations came from subcircuit races, a pattern that has been true in each judicial election since 2006.
Five candidates won subcircuit seats in 2012 despite unfavorable ratings from at least three of the bar groups. In contrast, only one judicial candidate won a countywide election after receiving that many unfavorable ratings.
Going back to 2006, 19 judicial candidates who received unfavorable ratings from three or more bar groups won subcircuit seats. But just four of the candidates who won countywide seats received that level of non-support from the bar groups.
Many candidates, like Lewis, receive the bad ratings come after choosing not to even submit to the evaluation process. Candidates who do not to take part in the review automatically earn negative evaluations.
To Malcolm Rich, executive director of the Chicago Council of Lawyers, the failure to be evaluated is clearly a “red flag.” He explained: “The public will not have proper information about them; it is a sign that they should not be on the bench.”
The same day Lewis won the Democratic primary – tantamount to winning election in Chicago — Daniel R. Degnan had an even easier time winning a third subcircuit seat on the bench. Like Lewis, Degnan failed to win recommendation of any of the bar groups after he did not take part in the evaluation process.
But Degnan, whose father was a close aide to former Mayor Richard M. Daley, had enough political support that four other candidates for the third subcircuit seat withdrew from the race — leaving him to claim the seat unopposed.
“Once you get into a subcircuit you are particularly vulnerable to the fact that some person may control the politics of that district or that area,” said Valukas, who said the result can be that citizens end up having their case heard by “someone who may not even know the rudiments of the law and whose temperament may be an absolute disaster. That’s not the way you have a system.”
That is not to say that every candidate chosen by party leaders is unqualified; when she ran last year at the urging of Democratic party chief Joseph Berrios, former assistant public defender Beatriz Santiago won widespread support from the bar groups. The Council of Lawyers, for one, rated Santiago “qualified” and said she “is considered to have very good legal ability with good litigation skills.”
In the seventh subcircuit, Wheatley recently said he did not have a good explanation for his loss. But one thing he did note was the turnout. With President Obama facing only token primary opposition, there was little reason for voters to turn out.
Bar associations` ratings of judges elected by sub circuit in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
Lewis’ vote total of 7,984 amounted to just five percent of the total registered voters in the subcircuit, county and city election officials said.
The fact that subcircuit elections open the door to less-experienced lawyers winning seats on the bench is a longstanding concern. After Vanessa A. Hopkins won a 1996 primary race for a seat from the first subcircuit on the court, the Chicago Tribune wrote:
“Vanessa A. Hopkins is 39 years old and has been licensed to practice law in Illinois for less than two years. Beyond that, her experience as a lawyer is something of a mystery. Bar groups do not know what kind of law she practices, where she practices or whether she practices it well.
“But they do know one thing: Hopkins was elected to be a judge Tuesday. Hopkins is what has become known as a ‘stealth candidate’ — lawyers who run for judge without submitting their qualifications to key bar groups for evaluation.”
The article quoted then-chief judge of Cook County Circuit Court, Donald O’Connell: “It appears the subcircuit system may have a propensity toward attracting candidates with less experience than other methods of election.”
Since winning election, Hopkins’ performance on the bench continues to draw concern. In 2002, the Chicago Bar Association wrote that her “limited knowledge of the law, legal experience, as both a lawyer and judge, and impatient judicial temperament make her ‘not recommended’ for retention.” That same year the Chicago Council of Lawyers found her not qualified: “No one questions her good faith efforts to perform her job, but a significant portion of lawyers contacted report that her knowledge of the law and her ability to manage a trial is limited, if not inadequate.”
Six years later, Hopkins won support from most groups in the alliance, but both the Chicago Bar Association and Chicago Council of Lawyers again gave her negative evaluations, citing both her temperament and her lack of punctuality.
Ratings or not, Hopkins, who did not respond to requests for comment, has managed to win voter support for keeping her seat each time she has run. The next retention election she will face: Next year.
The issue of qualification is only one issue surrounding subcircuit judges in Cook County. A whole separate issue, as Medill Watchdog/WGN Investigates found, is where judges live.
Here is our partner WGN’s video version: http://wgntv.com/2013/12/02/who-is-judging-the-judges-issues-of-qualification/
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