Bar poll receives some odd responses

The Austin Bar Association has released the results of its latest online poll evaluating the performance of local judges. According to the poll, 373 men and 239 women participated, along with 61 individuals who did not wish to reveal their gender. Of those 673 people, nearly 73 percent designated themselves as Caucasian while more than 7 percent said they are Hispanic and less than 3 percent African-American. That was not surprising, but one person claimed to be Klingon. Another 86 participants simply declined to state their ethnicity. The majority of the participants, more than 66 percent, indicated that they work for a private law firm, with more than 50 percent working solo or in a firm with up to 15 lawyers in a local office. More than 45 percent of the respondents indicated that they are involved in litigation, giving them a window onto the judiciary. In several cases, a relatively small number of participants chose to rate various judges, but the following judges were rated by at least 200 participants: District Judge Tim Sulak was among the highest-rated local jurists with more than 81 percent of respondents saying his overall performance was excellent. An additional 15 percent rated Sulak as acceptable. More than 64 percent of respondents rated District Judge Scott Jenkins’ overall performance as excellent, and another 26 percent rated his overall performance as acceptable. Likewise, 91 percent of respondents rated Judge Rhonda Hurley’s overall performance as excellent or acceptable. Overall, Judge Karin Crump was rated excellent by 67 percent of those responding and acceptable by about 26 percent. Of those responding to the survey, 41 percent rated Judge Gisela Triana’s overall performance as excellent, and another 40 percent rated her performance as acceptable. You can read the results for all those rated here.