The Memphis Bar Association, the Ben Jones Chapter of the
bar association comprised of black lawyers, David Caywood, Richard Fields, and
Herman Morris did their darnedest to shed some light on the judicial races in
the August 3rd election. They backed up their picks with evidence in
many cases. Voters who take the trouble to look over the endorsements and
comments, along with the picks of the local Republican and Democratic parties,
should be reasonably well informed.

It’s a start. It’s a big
improvement over blindly partisan ballots and, worse, billboard campaigns that
rely on red-white-and-blue color schemes and the words “reelect,” “return,” or
“experienced” to tout judicial credentials.

So two cheers, but not three cheers. Lawyers, judges,
reporters, and court officials can do better. And we must.

Ever seen a sleeping judge? Yes, it happens. Ever seen a
judge take a free vacation from someone with a pending case in his court? It’s
happened. Ever seen judges who work 20 hours while colleagues work 50? It
happens. Ever see judges take campaign contributions from attorneys with
business in their court? It happens.

What is needed is a ratings system that compiles the
enormous amount of data gathered by the court clerks’ offices and reported to
the state. Otherwise why collect it? Sure it’s hard to boil it down, but we rate
and rank mutual funds, schools, cars, students, and entire cities with a single
number, letter grade or symbol.

Disclosure is not truly disclosure if it is too cumbersome
or confusing. Providing an internet link to a 50-page report on civil and
criminal court judges is of limited usefulness, just as the fine print of
corporate annual reports and public filings is too unwieldy for the layman.
There must be measurements that apply to all candidates and they must be
user-friendly.

I liked the Commercial Appeal‘s Sunday overview of
judges. It was a nice piece of public-service journalism that included several
lists of endorsements. But there’s no substitute for being there, week in and
week out, in the courtroom. So my personal sounding board for races involving
candidates I don’t know is my even-handed friend and former colleague Larry
Buser, who has covered the courts for the CA for some 30 years. I expect
others use a similar system.