Twentieth Judicial District - District Court Judge
Honorable Daniel C. Hale
Retention Year: 1998
Recommendation: Retain
The Twentieth Judicial District Commission on Judicial Performance recommends that Judge Daniel C. Hale BE RETAINED.
Judge Hale is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Law and was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 1971. After leaving the District Attorney's Office in 1976, Judge Hale spent 20 years in private practice primarily as a criminal defense trial attorney before he was appointed District Judge in 1996. His workload since July of 1996 has involved mainly civil and domestic relations cases.
In arriving at the recommendation that Judge Hale be retained, the Judicial Performance Commission reviewed the results and comments from surveys submitted to attorneys, court personnel, and jurors familiar with Judge Hale. Additional information was obtained from observations of Judge Hale in his courtroom and a personal interview before the Judicial Performance Commission.
Comments received by the Commission were overwhelmingly positive and included the following: "Judge Hale is a credit to the judiciary."; "Judge Hale runs a good courtroom. Clients have told me they felt he really listens."; "Always allows parties to have their day in court."; "I had an excellent experience as a juror. I was impressed with the way everything was handled."
Based on a random sampling of 95 attorneys, 65 responded to questionnaires. Responses showed 57 attorneys or 96.6% in favor of retention. A single attorney or 1.5% indicated Judge Hale should not be retained and one other respondent, also equating to 1.5%, had no opinion as to retention. Judge Hale was found to be courteous to those in his courtroom, able to maintain professional demeanor in court, unbiased toward either side, able to use court time effectively, well-prepared for court matters and able to match appropriate law to facts.
Of a random sampling of 28 court and probation employees, 18 responded to the survey. The overall evaluation of all 18 responding was 100% to retain. Respondents also acknowledged his equal treatment of parties regardless of age, gender, social or economic status and appearance, lifestyle or personal views.
Seventy-eight litigants were randomly sampled of which seven responded. Their evaluation was 83.3% or 5 respondents to retain, 1 responding litigant or 16.7% indicated Judge Hale should not be retained.