Why this site exists

Colorado voters are asked every two years whether judges should keep their jobs. The people who actually watch judges work (people in the case, jurors, observers, attorneys) rarely get a simple way to say what they saw. And voters rarely get a simple way to read it.

What the state does today

Colorado’s Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation (OJPE) and its commissions evaluate judges using surveys, courtroom observation, interviews and public reports. That work matters, and the results are published online.

What the state’s own numbers show

In the state’s 2024 voter survey (423 voters), 53% knew that judges are evaluated, and only 23% knew the commissions exist. 33% said most voters do not have the information they need.
In the 2024 cycle, 117,355 members of the public were invited by email to evaluate judges. 6,614 responded: 6%.
Jurors and citizens are not sampled evenly. The state’s own report says their response rate “cannot be calculated”, because court staff choose which judges are evaluated and citizens choose to take part.
The number of people behind one judge’s score can be small. One district judge’s 2024 report rests on 42 people, and in it 18 of 1,072 invited attorneys responded. A 2017 report for another judge counts 5 completed juror surveys out of 13 sent.

These are the state’s own published figures. They are not accusations. They are the reason a second, simpler and open way to share what you saw in court is useful.

What we do differently

You can rate in about 30 seconds, on your phone, in English or Spanish, right after you leave the courtroom.
No account and no name. The site is built to know as little about you as possible.
The questions ask about what people can actually see, not about legal outcomes.
Results are public right away, split by who was rating, and every moderator decision is on the record.
It is an independent, open-source public project made for the residents of Colorado. Anyone can read the code, test it and suggest changes, and the code belongs to the public, not to a company or an agency. Our rule: moderators and maintainers must be verified Colorado residents (the verification process will be published here). Everything is done in the open so that anyone can check it.

What this site is not

It is independent. It is not part of, endorsed by, or connected to the State of Colorado, its courts or any commission.
It is not an official evaluation and not legal advice. It does not replace the commissions’ work.
Ratings are opinions about conduct in a courtroom. They are not findings of fact.
Right now it is a prototype with invented people and made-up ratings, so you can try it safely.

Join in

Want to help as a volunteer, programmer, tester, translator, lawyer or by spreading the word? Use the “Get involved” form in the footer. The code will be published as open source before launch, and the repository address will be posted here.