Recently the Nebraska State Bar Association reviewed judges throughout the state of Nebraska through the 2020 Judicial Performance Evaluation. Local Judges Travis O’Gorman and Paul Wess received high marks in the evaluation.
The Nebraska State Bar Association conducts the evaluation biennially, asking Nebraska’s lawyers to provide an assessment of a judge’s strengths and weaknesses to help improve the judicial system. A total of 1,088 evaluations were completed.
Lawyers were asked to rank judges in several categories, including legal analysis, fairness and temperament. The rankings range from one to five, with one being the lowest and five being the highest.
Box Butte County District Court Judge Travis O’Gorman received rankings of 4.09 and above in the 11 characteristics analyzed in the review. When asked if Judge O’Gorman should be retained, 80.5 percent responded yes, with 19.5 percent responding no.
Box Butte County Court Judge Paul Wess received rankings of 3.93 and above in the 11 characteristics reviewed. When asked if Judge Wess should be retained, 88.2 percent of respondents said yes, while 11.8 percent said no.
President of the NSBA Steve Mattoon said about the evaluation of the state’s judges that, “these numbers continue to be impressive and consistent with prior evaluations.” The poll has been conducted since 1984.