Posted: July 10, 2017
Code of Judicial Administration – Comment Period Closed August 24, 2017
CJA 03-111. Performance evaluation of senior judges and court commissioners. Amend. 1) Clarifies when court commissioners’ annual evaluations will be completed, by whom, what the evaluation process will entail; 2) establishes when the presiding judge will prepare a performance plan versus a corrective action plan for a court commissioner; and 3) moves the Judicial Council’s certification process from August to July.
CJA 03-201. Court commissioners. Amend. Clarifies 1) how the districts and court levels that a commissioner will serve will be represented on the court commissioner nominating committee; 2) how a commissioner is selected if they will serve more than one judicial district or court level; 3) that the commissioner certification process addresses retention, not removal; 4) that when a commissioner serves two districts or court levels, the presiding judges will each prepare performance evaluations and performance plans; and 5) how the commissioner public comment period results are reviewed and used.
CJA 03-201 Subparagraph 9(b) should reflect the reality that court commissioners are prohibited from the practice of law, just like judges, and should receive the same retirement benefits as judges. Without the ability to do work for which they are trained, court commissioners are severely limited in their ability to increase their revenue and save additional amounts for retirement. Considering that recommended rulings from the commissioners are not objected to approximately 88% of the time and less than 1/2 of the objections are reversed by the judges, the commissioners do a considerable amount of work that would normally go to a judge. The commissioners should benefit from the same retirement structure/calculation as judges. Also, considering that there are only 11 commissioners statewide, the potential increase to the budget is modest at best and is an incentive to retain good commissioners.