ALBANY, Ore. (AP) - Oregon Court of Appeals Judge James C. Egan describes the work of his court with the common sense you would expect from a country boy who grew up in Tangent.
Egan says Oregon’s 191 circuit court judges mine the ore; the 13 members of the Oregon Court of Appeals hammer it into shape; and the state’s seven Supreme Court judges put a fine edge on it.
Egan, 60 - who prefers to be called Jim unless he’s at work - officially took office in February 2013. An attorney for 25 years, Egan was a circuit court judge for 2½ years.
“The Circuit Court is like a roller coaster and the Court of Appeals is more like a merry-go-round,” Egan told the Albany Democrat-Herald (https://bit.ly/2gXnnaR). “Every day at the Circuit Court, the hallway is lined with people and the cases vary greatly. You go from hearings to trials, to jury instructions. We might have anything from a murder arraignment to a drug sentencing to a sexual abuse trial.”
By contrast, although the judges are hearing the same types of cases as the lower courts, the hallways of the Court of Appeals are quiet, which belies the urgency of the caseloads facing each judge.
The court handles anywhere from 2,500 to as many as 4,000 cases per year, although about 70 percent of the cases are affirmed quickly.
Egan’s fellow Court of Appeals judges are Chief Judge Erika Hadlock, Rex Armstrong, Darleen Ortega, Timothy Sercombe, Rebecca Duncan, Joel DeVore, Erin Lagesen, Douglas Tookey, Chris Garrett, Meagan Flynn, Roger DeHoog and Scott Shorr.
When Egan took the oath of office four years ago, he became the 10th sitting judge and although three new positions had been approved, they had not yet been funded. That has since occurred and there are now 13 judges who work in panels of three.
“What’s really nice is that we hear a lot of workers compensation cases and I specialized in that for many years in private practice,” Egan said. “I have been fortunate to write decisions on two key cases.”
Egan, who spent 34 years in the military - active and reserves - said his first year on the Court of Appeals “was a lot like someone’s first year in the Marine Corps. I enjoyed the challenge. It was a real hoot, but I got lucky and got a seasoned clerk who had a great teaching personality.”
Egan said that is important, since the judges actually have a “style book” which sets out parameters about language and styles used in writing decisions.
Egan said clerks serve for two years and most of them are overachievers who graduated in the Top 10 percent of their classes at law school.
“But I like to mix it up,” Egan said. “Every other year I pick someone from an alternative group. For example, Jennifer Potter had practiced law in Albany for five years. She is female and Hispanic, both of which are under-represented. She brought a completely different perspective that was much needed.”
Former delinquent
If there was a surprise involved in the move to the Court of Appeals, it was the sheer volume of cases. Egan predicts that will only grow.
“Each panel of three judges is assigned about 625 cases per year, so that’s two per day and each comes with 50 to 100 pages of briefs,” Egan said. “We affirm 70 percent of the cases right off the bat on average, which shows Oregon judges are by and large getting things right.”
On average, the judges complete one case each week and they write a 15- to 20-page decision for each.
“We try to get cases out within six months, but some can take more than a year,” Egan said.
That’s a sharp contrast to the circuit courts, “where you have to learn to make decisions in five minutes,” Egan said. “But it’s also important to remember that you are making a decision based on perhaps the worst 10 minutes of someone’s life.”
Egan calls himself a former “juvenile delinquent,” which proved beneficial as a Circuit Court judge.
“I used to tell kids who weren’t understanding the seriousness of their situation about my jail cell,” Egan said. “They thought I was talking about having an open cell to put them in. Instead, we would take them up to the fourth floor of the courthouse, to the old jail and I would show them the cell I spent some time in. They usually got the message.”
He also took pride in helping the young people grasp complex subjects by reading classic books such as “To Kill a Mockingbird” to learn about racial issues, or “Of Mice and Men” to understand real poverty.
Egan said each judge brings a unique background and profile to the court. He is the only one who served as a Circuit Court judge.
“Before a hearing, the three of us on our panel meet briefly around a conference table,” Egan said. “We have all read the briefs. We take an informal straw poll and then hear about half the cases. The other half are decided on the briefs alone.”
In about half of the cases, the court affirms the lower court judge’s ruling.
They then argue about the remaining 15 percent.
“We don’t really argue,” Egan said. “It’s really just a conversation and our clerks and staff attorneys are present. They often comment as well.”
Egan sits on the Judicial Fitness Commission, which has had some interesting cases in the last year, including that of Marion County Judge Vance Day, who was indicted on gun and misconduct charges.
Egan says it’s too early to tell whether Oregon’s new recreational marijuana laws will increase the Oregon Court of Appeals caseload.
“It will probably depend on whether President-elect Trump’s administration exercises pre-emption, which means that federal law outweighs state laws,” Egan said.
Marijuana possession remains illegal under federal law at this time.
One thing Egan misses since becoming an appellate judge is that he cannot be active in politics, even on the local level. He said he has been interested and active in politics since he was a teen.
“My wife, Michelle, and I like to take part in walks to benefit charities,” Egan said.
Between them, the Egans have eight children. His wife went back to college a few years ago and is now in her third year at Oregon State, where she is studying sociology, a subject her husband finds fascinating.
Egan recently retired from the military after 34 years of active and reserve military duty.
“I guess it was in my genetics,” he said of his enlistment in the Marine Corps while a long-haired Willamette University student in the 1970s. “My dad served in the Army Air Corps at the end of World War II.”
Egan said he has no plans to retire from the bench any time soon.
“I’ll probably still be working when I’m 75,” he said.
Egan has served as a pro-tem judge on the Supreme Court. The case involved Kip Kinkel, who killed his parents and two students at Thurston High School in Springfield.
Would he be interested in serving on the Oregon Supreme Court?
He says yes, but that all depends on timing of potential openings and if he is in an election cycle. His current term expires in 2019.
In the meantime, the judge continues to be visible in the mid-valley: At 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 4, he will talk with two sections of the AVID college prep classes at South Albany High School. Last year, he and two other judges heard three real cases at West Albany.
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Information from: Albany Democrat-Herald, https://www.dhonline.com
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