The North Carolina Bar Association is providing information about candidates for this contested judicial race derived from two surveys it conducted of North Carolina lawyers.

The Judicial Performance Evaluation Survey of May 2011 asked lawyers who were familiar with the work of sitting trial court judges whose terms expire in 2012 to rate those judges on certain qualities that are required of good judges, as well as the judge’s “overall performance.” Although not all lawyers rated all qualities, Judge Charles P. Bullock was rated by 102 lawyers.

The Non-Incumbent Judicial Candidate Evaluation Survey of March 2012 asked lawyers who were familiar with the work of attorney candidates for the trial bench to evaluate those attorneys on the same or similar qualities, as well as the candidate’s “overall performance.” Although not all lawyers rated all qualities, attorney Mary Howard Wells was rated by 79 lawyers.

The chart and bar graph below are derived from the survey results. The chart indicates the percentage of respondents who rated the candidate as “Excellent” or “Good” in each category.  The bar graph compares the “Average Rating” for each candidate in each category.