The Cincinnati Enquirer , using Ohio Supreme Court guidelines, reported in a 1993 story that Hamilton County judges had the biggest backlog of overdue cases among the state's six most populous counties, and a half-dozen judges had backlogs that were twice the state average. Most judges are reversed occasionally on appeal. The question for reporters is whether the incumbent has been reversed an unusual number of times or for unusual reasons. Court Docket and Case Files. These are particularly useful for checking the accuracy of complaints against a judge.
Rules vary from state to state on when disciplinary proceedings are made public.
Interviewing the Candidate. Judicial candidates, of course, are not allowed to say how they would rule in specific cases. A longer version of the article appeared in Vol. 16, No. 3 of the Newspaper Research Journal. The results of this year's Judicial Evaluation Survey will be released on October 1 at press conferences in St. Louis, Kansas City and Jefferson City.