Give a Like to Good Judges, Starting with Attorneys! Press Conference on the Trial Operation of the "Civilian Online Judicial Evaluation"

“Do not be sparing in your praise of judges, because judges will actively respond to praise with their actions.”

In recent years, various surveys on judicial satisfaction could be described as hitting "no lowest, only lower." However, this does not mean that the performance of judges in our country is getting worse; rather, it may be due to differences in survey methods. Past surveys focused on public satisfaction with the judiciary as a body rather than conducting separate evaluations of individual judges. Judges exercise independent trials according to law and are only responsible for the cases they handle. Conducting polls targeting the judiciary as a collective group is quite unfair to individual conscientious and responsible judges.

The current Judges Act stipulates that individual judges must be evaluated every 3 years (i.e., a comprehensive survey), and the Judicial Yuan also conducted the first "Comprehensive Judicial Evaluation" in 2014. The survey results showed that 90% of the public rated the judges who tried their cases as "excellent" or "good," while only 2.6% rated the judges as "needs improvement" or "urgently needs improvement" (see chart below). This shows that the public is not stingy in giving affirmation to individual judges, and the proportion of the public who feel judges have problems is also very low.

However, because the Judicial Yuan overly restricted the scope of non-disclosure, the first "Comprehensive Judicial Evaluation" failed to achieve its expected effect of encouraging judges. The second "Comprehensive Judicial Evaluation" started on March 20 of this year and ended on September 30, with statistics expected to be completed by the end of the year. To prevent the good intentions of a sound law from being hollowed out once again by the conservative attitude of judicial administration, the Judicial Reform Foundation has established the "Civilian Online Judicial Evaluation" system to gradually accumulate a civilian evaluation database, which will be used to compare and monitor the effectiveness of the official implementation of the "Comprehensive Judicial Evaluation."

Statistical Table of Comprehensive Judicial Evaluation Operations and Results

Item	Number of Cases or Persons Sent to		Number Recovered		Recovery Rate
Evaluated Cases	75,215 cases[Note 2]		10,429 cases[Note 2]		13.87%
Evaluators	226,823 persons		12,947 persons[Note 2]		5.71%
Evaluation Results	Excellent	Good	Fair	Needs Improvement	Urgently Needs Improvement
Ratio	56.4%	33.6%	7.3%	1.2%	1.4%

Trial Operation of "Civilian Online Judicial Evaluation"

The "Civilian Online Judicial Evaluation" plans for three types of users: attorneys, parties, and courtroom observers. Starting today, the trial operation of the attorney function will begin. Thanks to the assistance of the Taipei Bar Association, the participants in the trial operation will be primarily invited members of the Taipei Bar Association. The purposes of the trial operation are as follows:

1. Test the stability of the online system;
2. Test whether the questions comply with the principles of questionnaire design;
3. Collect data to plan statistical methods and publication methods.

The results will not be made public during the trial operation period, and the questionnaire content and system functions will be adjusted at any time. Once preliminary testing shows the system functions can operate smoothly, tests of other parts will be conducted. After overall functions are stable, a schedule for the official launch plan will be announced at another time.

"Give a Like to Good Judges, Starting with Attorneys!"

Attorney partners are cordially invited to enthusiastically participate in the trial operation of the "Civilian Online Judicial Evaluation." Attorney partners are earnestly requested not to hesitate, pick up your mobile phones, browse the following URL, and together help make the trial operation of the "Civilian Online Judicial Evaluation" a smooth success!

• "Civilian Online Judicial Evaluation" URL: https://sunshine.jrf.org.tw/who-are-you 

Attendees

Hsueh Chin-feng, Attorney / Chairperson of the Taipei Bar Association
Mars / Executive Director of 5th Floor Professional Information Studio
Lin Yung-sung, Attorney / Chairperson of the Judicial Reform Foundation
Kao Jung-chih, Attorney / Executive Director of the Judicial Reform Foundation
Lin Yu-tsang / Information Specialist of the Judicial Reform Foundation

Press Contact
Judicial Reform Foundation Executive Director Kao Jung-chih — 25231178 / 0976-328-187