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2009 News Articles › NCBA Will Not Rate 2010 Judicial Candidates
NCBA Will Not Rate 2010 Judicial Candidates
Article Date: Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Written By: Russell Rawlings
The North Carolina Bar Association will not provide ratings for sitting judges seeking election to District Court and Superior Court judgeships in 2010.
The decision to forgo the final steps of the Judicial Performance Evaluation process for the upcoming election cycle was reached after an extensive review that included members of JPE Committee, NCBA leadership and members of the judiciary.
“We reached the consensus that we did not have sufficient attorney evaluations to move forward with this process for 2010,” said NCBA President John R. Wester. “This was a difficult decision because so many have devoted so many hours to this program over the past two years. We have had exemplary efforts from volunteer judges, lawyers and laypersons whose service on our JPE Committee deserves our continuing gratitude.
“In the end, the results did not persuade me and our committee that we had an adequate number of responses to produce a fair rating of the judges. We are acutely aware that this process affects nothing less than careers, and that awareness leads us to believe that we must have a higher number of responses to proceed.”
In light of the fact that the JPE Committee will not be making final determinations on ratings of candidates, the committee urges judges not to use the preliminary ratings in the 2010 election.
“Although this result was not what we had hoped for, especially since the pilot survey had produced better participation by attorneys, we have not given up,” JPE Committee Chair Rhoda Billings stated in a letter to the judges who were being evaluated.
“We will review our process and procedures,” the former chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court wrote, “and, hopefully with your help, move forward with a more effective way to solicit attorney responses. We are committed to providing more information to North Carolina voters so that they may make informed choices so long as our state continues to subject judges to popular elections.”