iowa-judges.csv

Published

August 2, 2023

The Iowa State Bar Association has conducted the Judicial Performance Review as a way of giving voters information on the Iowa judges up for retention in an election year. Judges are evaluated on their professional competence and demeanor as determined by the attorneys who frequently appeared before them. The attorneys also indicate whether or not they believe the judge should be retained. The data in iowa-judges.csv were published by the The Iowa State Bar Association (2018). The variables are:

year: Year of the judicial performance review
judge: Name of the judge
district: Judicial district
respondents: Number of attorneys who rated the judge
retention: Percentage of attorneys who indicated the judge should be retained

The following characteristics were rated on the scale: 5 (Excellent; performance is outstanding), 4 (Good; performance is above average), 3 (Satisfactory; performance is adequate), 2 (Deficient; performance is below average), 1 (Very Poor; performance is well below average and unacceptable).

knowledge: Knowledge and application of the law
perception: Perception of factual issues
punctuality: Punctuality for court proceedings
attention: Attentiveness to evidence and arguments
management: Management and control of the courtroom
demeanor: Temperament and demeanor
clarity: Clarity and quality of written opinions
promptness: Promptness of rulings and decisions

The following characteristics were rated on the scale: 5 (Strongly Agree), 4 (Agree), 3 (Neither), 2 (Disagree), 1 (Strongly Disagree)

criticism: Avoids undue personal observations or criticisms of litigants, judges and lawyers from bench or in written opinions
decision: Decides cases on basis of applicable law and fact, not affected by outside influence.
courteous: Is courteous and patient with litigants, lawyers and court personnel.
equality: Treats people equally regardless of race, gender, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status or disability.

Preview

Code

# Import data
judges = readr::read_csv(file = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zief0002/redesigned-adventure/main/data/iowa-judges.csv")

# View data
judges

References

The Iowa State Bar Association. (2018). 2018 judicial performance review. The Iowa State Bar Association. Retrieved from https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.iowabar.org/resource/resmgr/judicial_performance_review/2018/2018_Judicial_Performance_Re.pdf