Utah Admin. Code R597-3-2 - Survey

(1) For the purpose of judicial performance evaluations, the commission shall:

(a) conduct surveys as described in R597-3-1; and

(b) post on its website the survey questionnaires upon which the judge shall be evaluated at the beginning of the survey cycle.

(2) For the purpose of judicial performance evaluations, the commission may:

(a) conduct periodic reviews to ensure compliance with administrative rules governing the survey process; and

(b) consider narrative survey comments that cannot be reduced to a numerical score.

(3) Within 10 business days of the end of the evaluation cycle, the clerk for the judge or the Administrative Office of the Courts shall identify attorneys who have appeared before the judge during the evaluation cycle a minimum of one hearing or trial.

(4) Identified attorneys may be included in the attorney survey pool for the evaluated judge, except if the attorney has been:

(a) confirmed as a judge during the evaluation cycle; or

(b) referred by the judge to the Office of Professional Conduct for allegations of misconduct.

(5) Within 10 business days of the end of the evaluation cycle, the Office of Professional Conduct shall identify all judges who have referred an attorney for allegations of misconduct.

(6) A t h i r d -party contractor engaged as a surveyor by the commission shall:

(a) design the survey to comply with generally-accepted principles of surveying;

(b) determine the maximum number of survey requests to send to a survey respondent, except that no survey respondent shall receive more than nine survey requests;

(c) identify the number of attorneys most likely to produce a response level yielding reliability at a 95% confidence level with a margin of error of +/- 5% for each judge who is the subject of a survey;

(d) survey all attorneys with one trial appearance before the evaluated judge, in accordance with R597-3-2(6)(b);

(e) consider all attorneys with at least five total appearances before the evaluated judge as eligible to be surveyed;

(f) supplement the survey pool with other attorneys who have appeared before the judge during the evaluation cycle in the event that the attorney appearance list from the Administrative Office of the Courts contains an insufficient number of attorneys with one trial appearance or at least five total appearances before the evaluated judge to achieve the required confidence level;

(g) due to impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and as a limited suspension of R597-3-1(3), for the evaluations completed for judges eligible for the 2022 retention elections and only as needed per evaluated judge, supplement the survey pool with other attorneys who have appeared before the evaluated judge from October 1, 2019 until and including March 31, 2020 to achieve the required confidence level;

(h) distribute the surveys to the appropriate survey respondent;

(i) redact all written comments from survey responses to remove any information that identifies the person commenting and deliver the redacted comments to the commission; and

(j) redact all written comments from survey responses to remove any information that discloses the identity of any crime victims and deliver the redacted comments to the commission.

(7) The surveyor may distribute surveys in paper form to those survey respondents who do not have access to email.

(8) Prior to the jury being dismissed, the bailiff or clerk in charge of a jury shall:

(a) collect email addresses from all jurors;

(b) collect street addresses from all jurors who don't have an email address; and

(c) transmit all such addresses to the surveyor within 24 hours of collection.

(9) Survey respondents eligible to receive a survey include:

(a) attorneys, as described in R597-3-2(3) and R597-3-2(4);

(b) jurors who participate in jury deliberation, where applicable;

(c) court staff who have worked with the judge, but are not limited to:

(i) judicial assistants;

(ii) case managers;

(iii) clerks of court;

(iv) trial court executives;

(v) interpreters;

(vi) bailiffs;

(vii) law clerks;

(viii) central staff attorneys;

(ix) juvenile probation and intake officers;

(x) other courthouse staff, as appropriate;

(xi) Administrative Office of the Courts staff; and

(xii) treatment providers for specialty courts;

(d) juvenile court professionals, where applicable:

(i) Division of Child and Family Services ("DCFS") child protection services workers;

(ii) Division of Child and Family Services ("DCFS") case workers;

(iii) Juvenile Justice Services ("JJS") Observation and Assessment Staff;

(iv) Juvenile Justice Services ("JJS") case managers;

(v) Juvenile Justice Services ("JJS") secure care staff; and

(vi) others who provide substantive professional services on a regular basis to the juvenile court.

(10) Any survey respondent may submit a public comment in writing pursuant to section 78A-12-203(2)(e), regardless of the submission of a survey response containing an anonymous narrative comment.

(11) The raw form of survey results consists of quantitative survey data that contributes to the minimum score on the judicial performance survey.

(12) The summary form of survey results consists of quantitative survey data in aggregated form.

Notes

Utah Admin. Code R597-3-2

Amended by Utah State Bulletin Number 2015-12, effective 5/27/2015 Amended by Utah State Bulletin Number 2018-23, effective 11/7/2018 Amended by Utah State Bulletin Number 2019-20, effective 9/23/2019 Amended by Utah State Bulletin Number 2021-19, effective 9/22/2021