© 2017 The Texas Lawbook.
By Mark Curriden
(Aug. 7) – The Dallas Bar Association’s bi-annual judicial evaluation poll is out and there are only two explanations for the results:
Dallas lawyers are very tough graders or the city has a bunch of bad and mediocre civil court judges.
The DBA poll, which was released over the weekend, found that no federal court judges, state appellate judges or state trial court judges scored higher than a score of 86 of 100 for excellence in overall performance.
Nine judges received an excellence rating of less than 50 percent. Four judges actually received more votes that they “need improvement” than votes that they are “excellent” jurists. Federal judges did significantly better than their state court counterparts.
The DBA gave its members four options: excellent, acceptable, needs improvement and no opinion. Nearly 900 lawyers participated in the survey.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale received the highest approval rating with an excellence score of 86, while only one lawyer said he needs improvement. U.S. District Judge Sidney Fitzwater obtained the second best rating (84 percent) and U.S. Chief District Judge Barbara Lynn ranked third with 82 percent of lawyers describing her performance as excellent.
The highest rated state judge is District Judge Tonya Parker, who received an 81 percent excellence ranking. Only 6 percent claim that she needs to improve as a jurist.
Judge Mark Greenberg is the most respected County Court at Law Judge with 75 percent of the lawyers giving him an excellent rating.
Dallas lawyers voted Dallas County Court at Law Judge D’Metria Benson as city’s worst civil court judge. Only 8 percent of the lawyers polled ranked her performance as excellent, 8 percent said she is acceptable and 84 percent say she needs improvement.
Fifteen percent of lawyers describe Dallas County Court at Law Judge Sally Montgomery as excellent.
The two lowest rated state district judges, according to the DBA poll, are Judge Eric Moye (44 percent needs improvement) and Judge Staci Williams (48 percent needs improvement).
The DBA poll shows that:
- Judges Fitzwater and Hale rank as the most prepared judges;
- Judges Hale and Parker rate as the most impartial judges;
- S. Bankruptcy Chief Judge Barbara Houser is viewed as having the best knowledge of the law with Judge Lynn as a close second;
- Judge Hale has the best judicial temperament; and
- Judges Lynn, Hale and Houser are the most prepared judges going into hearings and trials.
The dozen judges on the state’s Fifth District Court of Appeals received mostly moderate ratings.
Justice Craig Stoddard is the highest ranked appellate judge in the poll with 72 percent of lawyers giving him an excellent rating. Justice David Schenck is second with 65 percent and Justice Douglas Lang is third with 64 percent.
Justices Robert Fillmore and David Bridges are the lowest ranked appellate judges with 45 percent and 49 percent excellence ratings respectively.
In the poll, corporate defense lawyers outnumbered civil plaintiffs lawyers by a two-to-one margin. Two-thirds of the lawyers who participated in the survey have 10 years or more experience practicing law. Forty-six percent of the attorneys are with law firms with 10 or fewer lawyers.
To view full results of the Dallas Bar Association judicial evaluation survey, please click here.
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