Storch for District Court Judge

Judicial Performance Evaluation Released

How Good are Durham’s Judges?

The North Carolina State Bar Association has recently released (September 2008) the results of an extended study on the performance of District and Superior Court judges.  The information was gathered from more than nine thousand practicing attorneys across the state.  Among the criteria evaluated were:

1. Legal Ability: including legal reasoning skills; knowledge of the law; knowledge of the rules of procedure and evidence; and ability to keep up with current changes in the law.

2. Integrity and Impartiality: includes the avoidance of impropriety; treating people with dignity and respect; maintaining a neutral presence on the bench; basing decisions on the law and facts without regard to parties or counsel; and acting without bias toward anyone based upon personal characteristics.

3. Communication Skills: including the use of clear and logical communication in court.

4. Professionalism: acting in a dignified manner; attentiveness to proceedings; acting with patience and self-control; treating pro-se (self-represented) parties with fairness; and demonstrating the appropriate level of empathy with the parties.

5. Administrative Skills: includes being punctual for court; prepared for court; maintaining control over the courtroom; enforcing rules, orders, and deadlines; making decisions in a prompt and timely manner; and managing the court’s calendar efficiently.

So how well did North Carolina’s Judges do?

Based upon the combined results, North Carolina’s judges did very well on a scale of 1 to 5 as follows:

5 excellent
4 very good
3 acceptable
2 poor
1 unacceptable

Most judges were deemed very good or better.

However, if one looks at the individual results, i.e., how each particular judge fared, there were a significant number of judges in each region whose performance was well below the statewide average.

So how did Durham’s judges perform?  Of the forty district court judges in division three, a majority came out at or above the statewide average, which is very good or better.  However, at least 12 were consistently rated poor or unacceptable in all of the above categories.  So who are these judges?  As members of the voting public we would all like to know; however, don’t hold your breath.

The specific results for each judge will remain confidential. According to the NC Bar Association, “the two pilot surveys were undertaken as a study to determine whether surveys of this kind could provide reliable and valid information for use in evaluating the performance of judges and to provide some feedback to judges for the purpose of possible self improvement. It was never intended to be a basis for releasing information to the public for use in the upcoming election.”

Although the public won’t learn the results for any particular judge, each judge does know the results of the survey as every individual judge was given his or her results of the survey to “self-improve.”

The entire report may be viewed at: http://www.ncbar.org/download/ncba/jpeDraftReport.pdf (It’s a very large pdf file so it may take a few minutes to download…have patience since it is well worth reviewing.)

Remembering the old adage “silence speaks louder than words,” I’m left to wonder which of our Durham judges will or will not make their results public when they run for re-election?

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