Bill would cut some judges' pay.

Should low-performing Florida judges make less than their higher-performing colleagues?

The House Appropriations Committee broached that subject March 21 when it reviewed a pay model that would rank judges against each other.

"One thing I think is troubling, for most of us on this committee, is we pay all judges the same," said Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Doral, the committee's chair. "So you have judges that really work exceptionally hard and do a great job and move their dockets and have very high clearance rates; they are compensated just the same as the least effective or efficient judge"

Trujillo said a budget-neutral performance pay model under consideration would adjust the compensation of individual judges as follows:

* Judges ranked in the top 25 percent would receive a pay increase.

* Judges ranked from 26 to 74 percent would maintain their base pay.

* Judges ranked in the bottom 25 percent would have their pay cut.

The issue of performance pay came during a two-hour discussion with a number of chief judges and state court staff where the committee delved into judicial workloads, court staffing, and the methodology used in certifying the need for judges.

"So in reviewing all this information, we have decided that we want to really review how we motivate and encourage and retain and compensate those very high-performing judges; and at the same time discourage people from being low-performing judges," said Trujillo, a lawyer.

Trujillo said while the proposed judicial pay plan is not "set in stone" the House is interested in moving the state "toward a more competitive model for all workforce and all pay."

Trujillo identified 10 measures--designed by the National Center for State Courts--that could be taken into account when evaluating the performance of judges:

* Access and Fairness--Ratings of court users on the court's accessibility and its treatment of customers in terms of fairness, equality, and respect.

* Clearance Rates--Number of outgoing cases as a percentage of the number of incoming cases.

* Time to Disposition--Percentage of cases disposed or otherwise resolved within established time frames.

* Age of Active Pending Caseload--Age of the active cases pending before the court, measured as the number of days from filing until the time the cases are concluded.

* Trial Date Certainty--Number of times cases disposed by trial are scheduled for trial (a court's ability to hold trials on the first date they are scheduled to be heard).

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