Attorneys gave U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab the lowest ranking among federal judges in this year's judicial survey by the Allegheny County Bar Association, released yesterday.

Judge Schwab, 61, recently has been criticized for his handling of the high-profile criminal case of former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, whose trial ended in a hung jury in April.

Supporters said that case put him in the limelight for months and very likely skewed the results of the survey, which coincided with the mistrial.

"I can't remember in 30-some years of practice an instance where a judge was personally attacked to the same degree that Judge Schwab was," said Arthur Stroyd, who has worked with and practiced before the judge. "That's going to influence a lot of people filling out that survey."

Judges from Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, federal bankruptcy and magistrate courts, and state workers' compensation court were evaluated in four categories by 797 lawyers.

Rankings were on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being lowest and defined as "very poor" and 5 meaning "excellent."

As in years past, the categories were "impartiality," "legal ability," "diligence" and "temperament."

The federal judge who received the highest cumulative score was Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill, who received an average ranking of 4.5 from 179 lawyers who evaluated him.

Judge Schwab received the lowest scores both for impartiality, with an average score of 2.82, and temperament, with an average of 2.21.

Nearly 41 percent of the 259 lawyers who evaluated Judge Schwab gave him a "very poor" score for temperament.

Arthur J. Schwab

Mr. Stroyd was not surprised.

"He is tough on lawyers," he said. "Lawyers like to try their own cases, and they don't like judges telling them what to do. And he rules the roost in his courtroom."

Mr. Stroyd noted Judge Schwab's attention to rules, details and deadlines. He insists on attorneys following both local and federal rules of court, as well as his own edicts.

"If you're prepared and if you understand the rules, you love being in front of a judge like that," he said. "The trains run on time in his courtroom."

Judge Schwab also had the lowest cumulative score, with a 3.13 average. He got a 3.59 score for legal ability and 3.89 for diligence.

Ken Gormley, county bar association president, said the main purpose of the survey is to offer judges an evaluation to help them improve.

"The feature of this thing is not to compare judges to one another, but rather to provide feedback for judges to continue to be better in every fashion," he said.

For complete survey results, go to www.acba.org.