BISMARCK -- Douglas Herman, an attorney at Fargo's Microsoft Business Solutions, was ranked highest in a statewide lawyers' poll of the seven applicants for an East Central District judgeship that serves Cass, Steele and Traill counties.
Gov. John Hoeven will appoint one of them to the post now held by Norman Backes, who will retire on May 31.
The survey was done by the State Bar Association of North Dakota, which sent out 1,835 evaluations. Twenty percent, or 376, were returned. Among the 1,835 surveys, 411 went to lawyers in the East Central District and showed a 40 percent return rate.
On a scale of 1 to 5, Herman received the highest ranking in the areas of professional competence, legal experience, judicial temperament and integrity, as well as in the overall qualification column. He was the only one of the seven who received scores above 4.0 in all four categories and his overall score was 4.53.
DeAnn Pladson, a lawyer with the Maring Williams law office in Fargo, scored 3.96 overall.
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Nancy Morris, law clerk for U.S. Magistrate Karen Klein in Fargo, scored 3.7.
Lisa Fair McEvers, an assistant Cass County state's attorney, scored 3.4.
Connie Cleveland, legal counsel for Cass County Social Services, scored 3.28
Monty Mertz, a Cass County public defender, scored 3.04.
Adam Hamm, a lawyer at Anderson and Bottrell in Fargo and a former Cass County prosecutor, scored 2.87.
The survey is the third in less than a year for which the bar sought evaluations of lawyers who have applied for district judicial appointments, but the first that stands a chance of influencing Hoeven's decision.
In two previous appointments, of Wade Webb in Fargo and Sonna Anderson in Bismarck, Hoeven snubbed the bar association by announcing the appointment before the surveys were tabulated. In those cases, the bar conducted evaluations of finalists picked by the Judicial Nominating Committee, not all the applicants.
Neither Webb nor Anderson were the highest-scoring applicants in those bar polls.
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Webb scored last among the five finalists selected. The other finalists for that position were Steve Marquart, who scored highest, Robin Huseby, Steve McCullough and DeAnn Pladson.
This time, Hoeven and the bar association reached an agreement. The bar will evaluate all the applicants and the results will be given to the nominating committee and Hoeven.
Hoeven said that when the bar evaluated only the finalists, he decided he didn't have time to wait for polls. The law gives him 30 days after receiving the finalists' names before he is to name an appointee. Hoeven also said two-thirds of those on the nominating committee are members of the bar, so the association gets its input there.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Janell Cole at (701) 224-0830
