Judicial Ratings Committee
Our Judicial Ratings Committee provides judicial ratings of candidates for courts including Buffalo City Court and the New York State Supreme Court. The annual ratings are performed to provide voters with nonpartisan information on candidates running for judicial offices.
Using questionnaires and interviews, candidates are evaluated based on criteria deemed vital to hold judicial office; each candidate is then ranked.
The rating system used by the Minority Bar Association of WNY’s Judiciary Committee, although similar to that of other local bar associations, is unique in that it focuses on representing minority voices and perspectives.
Committee Chair
Our Judicial Ratings Committee is currently chaired by Kristen Elmore-Garcia, of the Law Office of John V. Elmore.
Elmore-Garcia graduated from SUNY Brockport in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in communications and political science. She attended the University of Missouri School of Law in Columbia. Further, Elmore-Garcia was formerly an associate at the law offices of William Mattar as a personal injury attorney serving clients in Western New York including Buffalo, Rochester, and as far as Syracuse and Utica. Elmore-Garcia was also an ssociate in the law firm of Kenney Shelton Liptak Novak, representing defendant clients in insurance claims filed against them. She was Erie County assistant DA in April 2020 and fought on behalf of the people of the State of New York, prosecuting cases and going to trial on assaults, DWIs, hit and run crashes, harassments and more.