Texas judges, unsurprisingly, have more positive attitudes toward the Texas courts than court personnel, attorneys, and the Texas public. Based on a 1998 survey, eighty-five percent of Texas judges reported that they feel positively or very positively about the Texas courts overall. A majority of court personnel, attorneys, and the Texas public also reported positive feelings about the courts, but the proportions drop steadily for each group. For court personnel the comparable figure is seventy percent. For attorneys the figure is sixty-three percent. The public, finally, is almost equally divided between a positive feeling (fifty-two percent) and a neutral or negative feeling (forty-eight percent). The pages that follow examine some of the thinking behind these opinions about the Texas judicial system.