What Judge4Yourself.com Ratings Mean

Judge4Yourself.com organizations have rated all of the candidates for judicial office on the November 2010 ballot in Cuyahoga County. There are ratings for-

• Domestic Relations Court - the court that handles divorces, domestic violence, support and custody issues.
• Common Pleas Court, this county's trial court for criminal and civil cases.
• Juvenile Court, which decides whether children are delinquent, neglected, dependent or abused, and what action should be taken.
• Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals - the court of last resort in this county.
• Ohio Supreme Court - the highest court in this state.

What We Consider in Our Ratings

Each Judge4Yourself.com organization rates candidates based on the criteria of integrity, judicial temperament, diligence, professional competence, and community understanding. Our ratings take into account the candidate’s answers to our questionnaire and an interview of the candidate in which representatives of all of our organizations participate, as well as other information, including a writing sample and information provided by disciplinary authorities. For more detail on our criteria, click here.

The Rating Terms

Each organization gives every candidate one of the following ratings:

• Excellent - This rating means the candidate is outstanding based on the Judge4Yourself.com criteria and is a superior choice for this judicial office.
• Good - This rating means the candidate substantially meets the Judge4Yourself.com criteria and is well qualified for judicial office.
• Adequate - This rating means the candidate meets the criteria passably or, alternatively, fails to satisfy one or more of the Judge4Yourself.com criteria.  A candidate rated “adequate” possesses at least the minimum qualifications for the office.
• Not Recommended - This rating means the candidate does not meet the Judge4Yourself.com criteria, lacking the minimal qualifications for judicial office.

If a candidate declines to participate in the Judge4Yourself.com process without a reasonable excuse, that candidate’s rating will be “Refused to Participate,” unless we have enough information to give a “Not Recommended” rating.

The rules of three Judge4Yourself.com organizations permit them to use the “preferred” when two candidates in the same race have an equal rating.

The "Grade Point" Average

For voter convenience, we also give you an average rating for each candidate in number form.  To get this average, we assign a number value to each rating (excellent = 4, good = 3, adequate = 2, and not recommended = 0), add the values of the ratings given to the candidate and divide the sum by the number of organizations that rate the candidate.  Each organization’s rating is given equal weight in the averages and is not rated by the number of members that the organization has.