JULY 2008: LAW
BENCH
BLUES
Low pay, long commutes and a heavy workload make it hard to
find judges for the rural areas of the state.
By Jon Bell
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, judges in rural
Oregon would literally ride the circuit, saddling up their
horses and galloping from courthouse to courthouse to tend to
judicial matters across their respective territories. It was a
hardship at the time, no doubt; one of the minuses to being a
trial judge far from the bustling urban centers of the
state.
A century or so later, the horses have been replaced and the
inconveniences of travel have been somewhat smoothed out. But
in some remote places in rural Oregon, judges are still riding
that circuit.
In the 10th Judicial District, for example, Wallowa and Union
counties share two circuit court judges between them.
It’s a 72-mile, hour-and-a-half trip between the two
county seats for the judges, both of whom live in Union County.
Wallowa County gets a judge every Wednesday and then for a
handful of days each month as needed for trials.
“The fact that in Wallowa and Union we share two judges
is hard for us,” says Mona Williams, the district
attorney in Wallowa County. “Our judges put in a lot of
hours and do a lot of traveling.”
In addition to some commuting hardships, judgeships in rural
Oregon come with several drawbacks that don’t necessarily
make them the most attractive positions — or the easiest
to fill. There’s the public sector salary that’s a
fraction of what a judge can make as a private practice
attorney. There’s a rigid work schedule, which sometimes
can include being on call 24 hours a day. And there’s the
prospect of working in often dilapidated and underfunded court
facilities.
Throw in a dash of public scrutiny and a pinch of
criticism, and it’s no wonder that, come election
day, voters don’t have too many choices to consider when
they vote for circuit court judges in rural Oregon.
“It is true that we have a hard time recruiting judges
in rural Oregon,” says Jillian Schoene, a spokesperson
for Gov. Ted Kulongoski, whose office helps publicize judicial
vacancies and fills them via appointment under certain
circumstances. “It doesn’t just apply to judges
though, but we are very aware of the issues that keep folks
from applying.” The office says it is hard to average the
number of vacancies that arise each year, because most are
created by retirements, which are unpredictable.
In addition to the Oregon Supreme Court, the Oregon Court of
Appeals and the Oregon Tax Court, there are 36 circuit courts
in Oregon spread over 27 judicial districts.
According to the Oregon Judicial Department, state law
determines the number of judges elected in each district,
usually by population and the volume of cases. There are
currently 173 circuit court judges in the state. Almost all of
them are elected, though some are appointed by the governor to
fill vacancies until the next election.
In the more urban areas of the state, filling a vacancy or
finding candidates to run isn’t too difficult. For
example, a circuit court vacancy in Marion County earlier this
spring prompted at least nine candidates to submit materials to
the governor’s office for consideration; just four
candidates vied for one in Lincoln City. And a few years ago in
Josephine County’s 14th Judicial District, just four
applicants applied for two open judgeships.
“We can have an opening in Portland and get 25
applicants,” Schoene says, “and in other parts of
the state we can get zero, one or two.”
The primary reason, of course, is simple demographics: The
pool of qualified candidates is not nearly as large in rural
areas.
“We’ve heard from people about how difficult it is
to fill positions just due to the fact that the rural areas
cover a lot of land with a lot fewer people on it,” says
Susan Grabe, public affairs director for the Oregon State
Bar.
A smaller pool of candidates often means an even smaller pool
of qualified ones.
“When there’s not a lot of competition, then you
don’t always get the most highly qualified people to fill
those positions,” says Lindi Baker, presiding judge in
the circuit court of the 14th Judicial District.
But the difficulties in finding judges in rural areas run
deeper than just pure population numbers. One of the main
roadblocks is a number of another sort: salary.
“It may not be that there aren’t enough people who
want to be judges; it may be a pay issue,” says Evan
Hansen, a lawyer with Grable & Hantke LLP.
“Anecdotally I’ve heard of some people who have
considered being judges, but then they realized that they would
be taking a pay cut, which they didn’t want to
do.”
Until the last legislative session, Oregon judges were paid
less than judges in any other state in the country, according
to the Oregon Judicial Department’s 2007 annual report.
As of June 30, 2007, circuit court judges here made $95,820 a
year in salary, not including benefits.
Acknowledging the comparatively low pay, the Legislature
approved judicial raises of 16% on July 1, 2007, bringing
annual circuit court judge salaries to $111,132. An additional
3% will kick in this July, bringing that number up to $114,468.
(Total compensation, which includes benefits such as health
insurance, PERS and Social Security, will be $189,800 in 2009,
according to Schoene.)
While that’s not exactly a pittance, compared to the
lucrative field of private law, it could be seen as modest.
“I make the same now as I made in the ’80s at a
law firm in San Francisco,” says Baker. “That was a
long time ago.”
Becoming a judge also can be a big downer for attorneys who
are used to working on their own terms, on their own schedules
and in their own offices. While judgeships offer some
flexibility, it’s not much. In Baker’s case, she
also is required to be on call 24 hours a day for one week each
month so that there is always a judge available.
Judges’ workloads are often heavy, and many court
facilities also are in disrepair and lack updated equipment.
The ODJ’s report found: “Courthouses throughout the
state are overcrowded, inaccessible to citizens with
disabilities, and have old and sometimes dangerous electrical
and plumbing systems.”
“So people take a pay cut, lose their autonomy, work in
a building that doesn’t have the latest equipment and is
short-staffed because of budget reductions, and they have to
run for election and then be tied to being in courtroom all day
and if they’re not, they get criticized,” says
Grabe. “People say, ‘Why would I ever do
that?’”
The strains can be even tougher in districts that are already
short judges to begin with, not because a vacancy
couldn’t be filled, but because there aren’t
adequate judgeships in the first place. District 14, for
example, has been identified as a district that is short one
judge. That can delay trials and otherwise slow down the
judicial process.
“When you’re working short like that,
there’s more work per judge,” Baker says. “We
can’t keep up with it.”
In the 10th District, Williams says that when she first took
over as DA in 2007, some cases had to be dismissed because
they’d lingered so long that the defendants missed out on
their right to a speedy trial. That happened in part, she says,
because it was nearly impossible to schedule a court date with
a judge.
“It would be great to have just one more part-time judge
out here in Wallowa County,” she says.
It’s up to the Legislature to fund enough judgeships in
each district, and every biennium, districts state their case
for additional positions based on case filings and overall
caseload. State court administrator Kingsley Click says no new
judgeships were created during the last biennium, but four were
during the 2003-05 session.
“The ability to have judges where we need them is still
an issue,” she says.
In addition to the Legislature’s recent pay raise for
Oregon judges, other efforts are under way to help ensure that
the state is able to recruit and retain enough well-qualified
judges. For starters, an interim legislative committee is
assessing the condition of state court facilities and will make
a recommendation to the Legislature as to what improvements
need to be made.
The hope is that not only will improved facilities be safer,
sounder and more practical, but that they’ll be one less
negative to give prospective judges pause.
The governor’s office also works closely with the state
bar to spread the word about all judicial vacancies and to
recruit qualified candidates. And the state also is working on
building a web-based court it calls Oregon eCourt, which
eventually may help streamline the judicial process and ease
some of the burden on courts and judges.
On top of such measures, there’s always the fact that
some people, such as Richard Barron, will take on the work of a
judge no matter the pay, no matter the work. Barron is the
presiding judge of the 15th Judicial District in Coos and Curry
counties. He’s been on the bench for 28 years, run
unopposed for re-election five times, and plans to run
again.
“I know my former partners have made more money than I
have,” he says, “but I love my work. It’s
been very rewarding. There’s not been a day when
I’ve awakened that I didn’t want to go to
work.”
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