The Cincinnati Bar Association has released its annual ratings for this fall’s judicial candidates, compiled from ballots sent to about 6,000 area lawyers. It received 531 responses that rated candidates as excellent, good, fair or poor in four categories:

• Integrity, character and objectivity;

• Legal experience, knowledge and ability;

• Respect for and courtesy to litigants, counsel and witnesses;

• Diligence.

Patrick Fischer, a candidate for Ohio’s First District Court of Appeals, came out a clear winner, with an average excellent rating of 87 percent in the four categories. The next best were John Williams and Stephen Black, both with 75 percent averages.

Williams and Black were rated, respectively, by 125 and 95 of the respondents, compared with 230 for Fischer. Williams is running for juvenile court judge, and Black is running for domestic relations judge.

Fischer’s 89 percent rating for “integrity, character and objectivity” was also the highest excellent rating achieved by any of the 15 candidates. In fact, he got excellent ratings of 80 or better in each category, and no one else got a rating above 79 in any category.

At the other end of the spectrum, Tracie Hunter, a candidate for the juvenile court bench, was the pretty clear loser based on numerical ratings. Her average excellent rating was only 23, while her average poor rating was a whopping 37. Only 39 of the 531 respondents were familiar enough with her work to give her a rating, but 19 of them rated her “legal experience, knowledge and ability” as poor.

A lot more lawyers have seen Judge William Mallory in action – he was rated by 292 lawyers – but less than a third of them rated him as excellent. Mallory is on the First District Court of Appeals and running against Fischer.

To see a complete list, click here.

Respondents were asked to rate only those candidates who they had practiced before or had professional contact with in the past four years.

Cincinnati Business Courier, CincyBiz Blog

Jon Newberry, Staff Writer