Judicial Candidates' Information 

Local/Open Seat:

On May 16, 2023, a primary election will be held for one open seat on the Court of Common Pleas of Erie County. The candidates for this general election are Eric J. Mikovch, Leigh Ann Orton, and Peter J. Sala. They have provided their resumes and answered a questionnaire regarding their background and qualifications, linked below.

The Erie County Bar Association asked its Active members to rate each judicial candidate during the recent Judicial Ratings Poll. In order to have a qualified ballot result, more than 35% of the members must have cast a ballot. The independent accounting firm of Maloney, Reed, Scarpitti & Company audited the results of the balloting with the results published below. 

Erie County Judicial Candidates Rated by Attorneys

The Erie County Bar Association (ECBA) recently polled its 403 Active members to determine how they would rate this year's judicial candidates. The ECBA conducts judicial candidate ratings so the public will know how fellow attorneys, who work more closely with the candidates than anyone else, would rate their qualifications to be judge. 

In the poll, ECBA members were asked to evaluate and provide an overall rating for each candidate based upon the totality of his or her professional qualifications including competence, integrity, temperament, and experience.  

An overall rating of "Highly Recommended" indicates the candidate possesses the highest level of competence, integrity, temperament, and experience and would be capable of an outstanding performance as a judge.  A "Recommended" rating indicates the candidate possesses an adequate level of competence, integrity, temperament, and experience and would be capable of satisfactory performance as a judge. A "Not Recommended" rating indicates that at this time the candidate does not possess the level of competence, integrity, temperament or experience, or any combination thereof, to be capable of satisfactory performance as a judge.  If voting members do not know a candidate well enough to evaluate them, they are asked to indicate "No Opinion." 

For a candidate to receive a rating of "Highly Recommended," more than 35% of the membership returning ballots must rate a candidate as "Highly Recommended."  For a candidate to receive a rating of "Recommended," more than 35% of the membership returning ballots must rate the candidate as "Recommended."  When determining whether a candidate is "Recommended" by more than 35% of the membership returning ballots, votes received in the categories of "Highly Recommended" and "Recommended" are combined.  For a candidate to receive a rating of "Not Recommended," more than 35% of the membership returning ballots must rate the candidate as "Not Recommended." Where more than 35% of the membership does not rate the candidate as "Highly Recommended," "Recommended" or "Not Recommended," the candidate received no rating. The results are shown below.

 

Overall Rating

In the same poll, ECBA members were asked to evaluate on a scale of 1 to 5 (with 1 representing "strongly disagree" and 5 representing "strongly agree") whether each candidate possesses the competence, integrity, temperament, and experience to be a judge.  As such, the more strongly a member agreed that the candidate possesses such a quality, the higher the score. The more strongly that a member disagreed that the candidate possesses such a quality, the lower the score. "Competence" is defined as intellectual capability, judgment, legal writing and analytical ability, industry, knowledge of the law, scholarship and academic talent, and professional contributions.  "Integrity" is defined as good moral character, ethics, honesty, and trustworthiness.  "Temperament" is defined as compassion, decisiveness, open-mindedness, sensitivity, courtesy, patience, freedom from bias, and commitment to justice.  "Experience" is defined as years in practice, diversity of legal experience, trial experience, work with administrative agencies and arbitration boards, teaching, and public service.  The results are shown below.

 

 

 

There were 403 ballots issued and 213 valid ballots returned, or a participation rate of 53%. 

The percentages and average scores above are based upon the total valid ballots received, not the total number of Active members. The ballots were tallied by Maloney, Reed, Scarpitti & Company, LLP, Certified Public Accountants. 

 Pennsylvania Bar Association Judicial Evaluation Commission Issues All Ratings for Candidates Seeking to Fill Seats on Pennsylvania Appellate Courts

The Pennsylvania Bar Association Judicial Evaluation Commission (PBA JEC) has released its final list of ratings for judicial candidates seeking to fill one open seat on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, two seats on the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and one seat on the Commonwealth Court. Each candidate requesting an evaluation by the PBA JEC is eligible to receive a rating of "Highly Recommended," "Recommended" or "Not Recommended."

 

SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Highly Recommended
Judge Carolyn T. Carluccio (Montgomery County)
Judge Deborah A. Kunselman (Beaver County)
Judge Daniel D. McCaffery (Philadelphia County)

Not Recommended
Judge Patricia A. McCullough (Dauphin County) – for failure to participate

 

SUPERIOR COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA 

Highly Recommended
Jill L. Beck (Allegheny County)
Judge Timika R. Lane (Philadelphia County) 

Recommended
Judge Harry F. Smail Jr. (Westmoreland County) 

Not Recommended
Maria Battista (Clarion County) – for failure to participate
Judge Patrick F. Dugan (Philadelphia County) – for failure to participate

 

COMMONWEALTH COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Recommended
Megan L. Martin (Cumberland County)
Bryan S. Neft (Allegheny County)
Judge Matthew S. Wolf (Philadelphia County)

 Not Recommended
Joshua G. Prince (Berks County)

A descriptive paragraph about each candidate's rating and links to each candidate's questionnaire and signed Judicial Candidate's Pledge for each candidate completing the JEC evaluation process is included in the link below.