Access and Fairness Survey
May 27, 2009
The Court Administration conducted a survey to ascertain how well the court is performing in the areas of access to the court and judicial fairness. The survey was conducted utilizing the National Center for State Courts Access and Fairness Courtool Measure. The survey was completed on two days, May 18th and May 19th of 2009.
I would like to thank Mary Foley and Margaret Salinas for their assistance in the implementation of the survey.
I am pleased to announce that the results of the survey were favorable. Much of the research bears that individuals appearing before the court what the opportunity to be heard and it is not about who “wins” or who “loses”. Overall, 83.4% of the respondents felt there is adequate access to the court and there are few barriers. There were several specific comments made by litigants who feel there are too many appearances necessary to move the case to disposition. 78.6% of the respondents felt they had been treated fairly by the court. While there is no national standard when it comes to measuring the access and fairness of a court, I believe, along with many of my colleagues, that an 80% favorable response is very good. We had a very good cross section of respondents. 51% of the respondents were here for jury duty. The remaining 49% were either a party to a case, an attorney, or other court resource user. In all there were 230 respondents to the survey.
I have attached the findings for your review. I will also be putting them on the SharePoint sight. If you have any questions about the findings, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will be sharing this information with the Law and Justice Committee at the June meeting.
Respectfully,
James D. Wallis
James D. Wallis
Trial Court Administrator
22nd Judicial Circuit, McHenry County
