9 Will County Judges On Ballot: Patch Analyzes Rankings

JOLIET, IL — Will County Circuit Judge Daniel Kennedy sets the bar for Will County's judges when it comes to his integrity, sensitivity, legal ability, temperament and impartiality, according to the latest scores for Will County's Courthouse judges. On the other hand, Will County Circuit Judge Sarah Jones scored a lousy rating for her temperament, according to the judicial ratings.

Of the nine Will County Circuit Court judges up for retention in the Nov. 3 election, seven scored an 83 percent rating or higher for their temperament on the bench. By far, Judge Jones scored the worst rating of 56.8 percent. The second lowest score for temperament went to Judge Susan O'Leary, who scored a 78 percent.

In 2014, Judge Jones was not recommended for retention by the judicial advisory poll done by the Illinois State Bar Association, yet the voters of Will County chose to retain Jones on the bench for another six years.

(Article continues below this photo.)

This time around, all nine Will County judges up for retention, including Jones, are being recommended for retention by the Illinois State Bar Association, according to the poll results.

The nine judges up for retention on Nov. 3 must receive at least 60 percent of the "yes" vote from Will County's voters in order to remain on the bench for another six years. The last time a Will County Circuit Court judge was kicked off the bench by the voters happened in the 1990s to Judge Edward "Ned" Masters. Masters, now in his seventies, remains a prominent Joliet lawyer in private practice.

According to the Illinois State Bar Association, Judge Kennedy scored the highest ranking, 92.6 percent, on the question of meets requirements of office. The second highest in this category was Chief Judge Richard Schoenstedt at 89.2 percent; Judge Jeff Allen was third at 87.4 percent; Judge Paula Gomora was fourth at 87.2 percent; Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak was fifth at 86.8 percent; Judge Dave Carlson and Daniel Rippy tied for sixth at 86 percent; O'Leary was eighth at 83.7 percent and Jones finished in last at 72.3 percent.

(Article continues below this photo.)

On the question of integrity, Kennedy scored the highest mark at 93.4 percent; second best was Allen at 91.7 percent; O'Leary was third best at 90.7 percent; Schoenstedt was fourth at 89.3 percent; in fifth was Gomora at 88.9 percent; Bertani-Tomczak was sixth at 88.1 percent; seventh was Carlson at 85.2 percent; eighth was Rippy at 81.6 and Jones finished last in integrity at a score of 72.3 percent.

On the question of impartiality, Kennedy, again set the standard for Will County's judges, scoring at 94.2 percent; Allen was second at 87.4 percent; Gomora was third at 87.1 percent, fourth was Schoenstedt at 87 percent; in fifth was Bertani-Tomczak at 86.9 percent; in sixth was O'Leary at 85.4 percent; in seventh was Carlson at 82.5 percent; in eighth was Rippy at 80.5 percent and Jones was last at 79 percent.

The other categories included: legal ability, temperament, court management, health and sensitivity. The polling results point out that the opinions expressed are of those lawyers who chose to respond and not the Illinois State Bar Association.

(Article continues below this photo.)

Judge Allen drew the most responses with 203 lawyers; Carlson was second highest at 145; third highest was Bertani-Tomczak at 137; O'Leary and Schoenstedt each at 131 responses; Kennedy had 123 responses; Gomora had 120 responses, Rippy got 116 responses and Jones had 114 responses.

Kennedy, Rippy and Carlson are also finishing their first term on the bench. The three men were first elected by the voters of Will County in the 2014 elections.