Judging NY judges. There’s a new tool for scrutinizing the deciders in robes.

New Yorkers, usually bereft of information about the judges they see on election day ballots and in the courtroom, can now dig into the records of more than 1,200 judges across the state, using a new website.

Scrutinize, a judicial transparency group, has launched a database that includes extensive information about every active state judge. It also shows which judges are up for reelection or reappointment.

Scrutinize Executive Director Oded Oren said the goal is to make judges’ records clear and accessible. Across New York — and most jurisdictions for that matter — members of the public typically have scant information at their fingertips about the jurists who decide cases and have outsize influence over public policy.

“We’re hoping that this new platform will be used by voters, by judicial delegates, selection committees, the governor, the mayor, everybody who’s involved in choosing which judges remain on our bench and make decisions about our lives,” Oren said.

The database expands on a pilot version from last year that featured profiles of about 20 judges who were up for reelection or reappointment.

“We had tens of thousands of hits on those pages,” Oren said. “We thought there is a real demand for this in New York.”

Gothamist got a sneak peek of the new site before its public release. Here’s what voters should know about the database — and Scrutinize.

Who’s behind the effort?

Scrutinize is a research organization that advocates to make New York state courts more transparent and accountable. The group also advocates for legislation to bolster public trust in the courts. Oren, a Harvard Law School graduate, founded Scrutinize after working for years as a public defender in the Bronx. The organization has published several reports on the judiciary, based on publicly available data and records gathered through Freedom of Information Law requests. The new database draws from those reports.

How does the database work?

Users can pick a judge, review their profile and check their record across several different categories.

Voters can also see which judges will appear on their ballot and who’s seeking reelection in each county. Some judges are appointed by elected officials — not chosen by voters — and the database specifies which appointed judges have terms ending this year.

Users can also look through different metrics that dig deeper into judges’ actions on the bench.

What about discipline records?

The database notes a judge has ever been punished by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct — and, if so, how many times. Users can click through to see the underlying records explaining what happened and what the punishment was. Judges rarely face discipline, so when they do, it’s typically for serious misconduct.

Which judges have published the most decisions?

The database allows users to see how often judges publish their decisions and how they rank amongst their peers. It also includes links to rulings that are online. Judges routinely write rulings in both civil and criminal court. Those rulings explain the legal reasons behind their decisions. But it’s somewhat uncommon for New York state judges to share their rulings with the public, even though the state court system has a website where they can be published.

Which judges have had their evidentiary rulings overturned?

Criminal defendants often ask judges not to allow certain evidence to be used against them, arguing it was obtained illegally. Police have to meet specific criteria to search someone and take their property. If police break the rules, the evidence they seize isn’t supposed to be used in court.

Scrutinize’s database notes how often judges allowed evidence to be used against defendants, only for an appellate court to later overturn their decisions. This metric purports to show how willing a judges are to allow prosecutors to build cases on evidence obtained unconstitutionally.

Which judges have sentenced defendants to prison terms that higher courts later found were too long?

Users can see whether judges handed down prison sentences that appellate courts found were excessive or unduly harsh. And if higher courts found that sentences they doled out were too extreme, the database notes how many years were later knocked off. Users can also see how they compare to other judges in terms of excessive sentencing.

Which judges had a case reversed and reassigned?

In a small share of cases, higher courts will overturn criminal convictions and reassign the cases to other judges. These types of reassignments typically suggest appellate courts found that trial judges acted in improper ways. The database allows users to see whether a higher court ever reversed the outcome of a judge’s case and had another judge take it over.

Who made bail more costly than it could have been?

The database shows how often judges favored bail bonding companies over more affordable bail options. Those decisions make a difference. When someone is arrested and bail is set, a state judge is supposed to give the person the option of paying the court directly, instead of paying a bail bonding company. The aim is to make it easier for low-income people to get their loved ones out of jail while they await trial — and to reduce reliance on the bail bonding industry. Bail paid directly to the court is fully refunded at the end of the case if a defendant shows up to all court dates and follows a judge’s orders, while bail bonding companies usually hold onto a percentage.

Which judges ordered defendants to be held in jail while awaiting trial more often than their peers?

For certain types of crimes, judges decide whether accused people should be sent home or held in jail while their cases winds through the court. Users can see in the database how likely judges were to detain people pretrial compared to the judge's peers between January 2020 and June 2022.