Question of the Month

By Anna-Leigh Firth

Our November Question of the Month asked NJC alumni if they have ever regretted one of their rulings. Nearly 80 percent of the 464 judges who responded said yes.

Our October Question of the Month asked judges if they feel judicial independence is being threatened. The consensus seemed to be, “Do you even have to ask?”

By Anna-Leigh Firth

At least six years, but nearly half of judges think the prerequisite should be 10 years.

Our August question of the month asked NJC alumni, “Do you think civil jury trials are headed for extinction?” Despite the fact that juries now decide fewer than 0.5 percent of all civil filings in most jurisdictions, 71 percent of respondents said they don’t think the civil jury trial system is doomed.

Our July question of the month asked, “Should jurors be allowed to ask questions of witnesses?” A slight majority, 52 percent of the 791 respondents, said no, but it proved a comment-provoking question. Well over a third added comments, most of the anonymous variety.

Unconscious bias has been in the headlines since Starbucks closed all its stores nationwide for an afternoon late last month to conduct racial-bias education for employees.

The Supreme Court is one of the last institutions – judicial or otherwise – immune from the watchful eye of television cameras. Should it be?

Courtrooms have long been depicted as models of formality and decorum, but our informal survey of judges suggests that the scene is changing.

Our March Question of the Month asked if you could change one thing about being a judge, what would it be?

Our February Question of the Month asked judges if they believe the judiciary is, in practice, a coequal branch of the government, as the Constitution envisions.

More than two out of three judges surveyed say they had no formal judicial education before they took the bench, leading many to call the beginning of their careers a baptism under fire.

We decided to have a little fun with our Question of the Month and Reflections from the Bench articles this December. For our monthly survey, we asked NJC alumni how they would have ruled if they had presided over the case in the movie Miracle on 34th Street.

The national movement to reform money bail in America received a boost this October when a yearlong study backed by the chief justice of California recommended moving away from money bail because it discriminates against people and families with little savings or income.  

Nearly half of all judges who participated in our monthly survey of NJC alumni indicated they have suffered from secondary traumatic stress. And the actual percentage of judges who are traumatized could be even higher, according to one expert in the field.

In the wake of last month’s shooting of an Ohio judge, who returned fire, our September Question of the Month email survey of NJC alumni asked simply, “Do you carry a gun?”