Second Judicial District - District Court Judge
Honorable Jill Dorancy
Retention Year: 2022
Recommendation: Meets Performance Standard
Reports:
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The Second Judicial District Commission on Judicial Performance agrees by a vote of 9-0, with one Commissioner absent from voting, that Judge Jill Dorancy MEETS PERFORMANCE STANDARDS. The Colorado statutory judicial performance standards are integrity, legal knowledge, communication skills, judicial temperament, administrative performance, and service to the legal profession and the public.
Judge Dorancy presides over a domestic relations docket. Judge Dorancy meets all aspects of the performance criteria and writes in a clear, concise, and well-reasoned manner. Less than 1% of her domestic relations cases were older than 180 days, one of the court’s internal benchmarks for performance, for which the Commission commends her. The Commission did not identify any evaluation category in which Judge Dorancy displayed a notable weakness.
The Commission met with the Chief Judge of Denver District Court regarding Judge Dorancy’s performance, as well as with members of the District Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office and Probation Department. The Commission conducted a personal interview with Judge Dorancy and observed her during court proceedings. It also reviewed opinions she authored, comments received from interested parties during the evaluation, recordings from her courtroom, case management data, and judicial performance survey responses from attorneys and non-attorneys that interacted with her. The surveys reflected personal opinions on Judge Dorancy’s Case Management, Application and Knowledge of the Law, Communications, Diligence, Demeanor, and Fairness. Of the 36 attorneys and 34 non-attorneys who completed the survey and reported they had sufficient knowledge of Judge Dorancy’s performance to evaluate her, 91% of the attorneys and 62% of the non-attorneys believe that Judge Dorancy met performance standards. Judge Dorancy received ratings at or near the statewide average among district court judges in the survey areas of Case Management, Application and Knowledge of the Law, Communications, Diligence, Demeanor, and Fairness, with above average ratings coming from the attorneys who responded. Judge Dorancy received a rating significantly above the statewide average for district court judges from the seven appellate judges who evaluated her performance. While the Commission used these survey results in its evaluation, this evaluation tool was used in conjunction with several others to evaluate Judge Dorancy’s performance. All the data reviewed by the Commission supports the recommendation that Judge Dorancy be retained.
Governor Polis appointed Judge Dorancy in July 2020. She earned her undergraduate degree from Binghamton University in New York and her law degree from the University of New Mexico School of Law. Prior to her appointment as a Judge, she was in private practice specializing in oil and gas regulatory matters and energy-related litigation. From 2012-2017 she was a Hearings Officer for the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. She also clerked for Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Kellam Scott.