“Judges Nearly Perfect”

I first saw this story about the Illinois Bar Association’s on the Daily Herald web site Saturday.

It’s headline was

Lawyers give McHenry County judges mixed reviews in poll

But, it was the Northwest Herald’s headline

Judges Nearly Perfect

that stimulated this article.

Remember last May when McHenry County Blog broke the story that the Chicago Crime Commission was looking into, well, crime, in McHenry County? At its press conference, it was revealed that McHenry County divorce court judges were being probed by the Chicago Crime Commission?

Two judges who have been in divorce court are mentioned in the Daily Herald article:

(1) (Associate Judge Suzanne C.) Mangiamele, an associate judge since 2003 who now presides over family and divorce court, earned strong marks in areas of integrity and sensitivity, but scored below the “recommended” level in areas of legal ability and court management.

She got a “not recommended” ranking.

(2) (Associate) Judge Michael Feetterer earned perfect scores in eight of nine categories, and 100 percent score on the issue of meeting the requirements of the office.

The stories I was getting concerned the judges and the lawyers being quite close. Too close, some alleged.

So the Illinois Bar Association does a survey of attorneys and, guess what?

The attorneys like and respect the judges.

Now this could be accurate or self-serving or a bit of both.

Bar association spokesman David Anderson said, “The poll is what it is — the opinion of the lawyers who chose to respond.”


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