By Peter H. Glade, Multnomah Bar Association President
The future condition of the Oregon Judicial Department will be determined shortly by the current legislature. Most of us recognize the strain caused by prolonged, chronic under-funding. Soon, it will be too late to do anything to help for another budget cycle. So take a few minutes to join with us in pushing to restore an adequate budget for the justice system.
Blessed with positive economic forecasts that stand in contrast to those of the past few biennia, many constituents whose economic fate rests with the legislature have had high expectations. Among those who anticipated easy relief from tight budgets that choked back funding sorely needed by our courts, I found myself shocked by the announcement in April that the legislature was considering a budget that not only failed to provide the funding requested by the Chief Justice, but also trimmed the Governor’s request for the Judicial Department (which had cut back the Chief ’s).
Translation: despite the improvement in Oregon’s economy and the availability of more revenue, the legislature is still reluctant to provide Oregon’s courts with funds sufficient to provide adequately compensated judges and staff, safe facilities, or functional technology.
How could this be? Well, many forces are at work here. The pressure influencing the apportionment of available revenue generates tremendous force on the legislature and comes from all directions. Our legislators deserve a little sympathy and understanding because they must listen to so many voices shouting for attention and money. Many of those voices call for the support of worthy programs. Rather than treating the Judicial Department as a branch of government, our current system puts it on footing comparable to every other government program. So, those of us who seek to persuade our representatives to open the purse for the courts must compete with many others for attention and funding.
A few weeks ago, I, along with several other lawyers and judges, spent several hours observing the testimony of many fellow citizens petitioning the Joint Ways and Means Committee to increase, restore, or, at least, not cut their funding from the budget now under consideration. I had hoped to address the committee myself, but I signed in too late. Instead, I listened and then talked to a few of the Committee members who stuck around. None was very encouraging. They tended to shake their heads and say, “these are tough decisions.”
Nevertheless, I found the experience enlightening, and I came away from it with a greater sense of the difficulty of the task before the legislature. I found much of the testimony quite compelling and the causes championed worthy. I can understand why taking funding from one to allow another to survive would be a terrible choice to have to make. I was also struck by the number of programs that directly or indirectly depended on the Judicial Department to channel participants to them, monitor their progress or protect their clients. In other words, most of the witnesses supporting these programs assumed that a smoothly functioning Judicial Department will remain in place. Unfortunately, that assumption may not be reasonable.
The critical nature of the service the Judicial Department provides to our community does not get much publicity or appreciation. The cases that make it into the paper comprise a small fraction of the matters processed by the courts. The courts’ steady diet of ordinary cases creates little notoriety. Yet all of those cases are not only of immediate importance to the participants but also inevitably affect our prized quality of life, and they are now being processed by courts stressed to the breaking point. Further deterioration of the court system would be a disaster for the community.
Many of the witnesses who testified before the committee raised concerns about public safety. These speakers focused on protecting the public by making more resources available for the effective apprehension, punishment and treatment of criminals. We probably all agree on the importance of such programs, but without a well-functioning court system, the criminal would go free. Without enough judges, juries, courtrooms, public defenders and prosecutors, those caught by the police cannot be convicted and sentenced. The primary impact of poorly funded courts, judges and staff will not be felt solely by those who work there. The entire community will suffer the consequences.
Likewise, we heard several witnesses speak about issues relating to domestic violence, child abuse, spousal abuse and addiction. Again, the programs necessary to meet the community’s needs in these areas depend on the availability of the court system. One may debate how best to fund programs that protect, shelter and heal those suffering from these social ills, but the need for judicial resources to connect victims and perpetrators to the appropriate resources cannot be disputed.
The budget for the Judicial Department constitutes less than 3% of Oregon’s total budget. This small part plays a critical role in maintaining our quality of life, and it has suffered from neglect for too long. This neglect must not continue. Like a radiator hose or a belt in a car engine, this part is relatively inexpensive, but must be maintained in good working order. Failure would be catastrophic, and we cannot afford to wait until the part fails to fix it.
Please make your views known to your senator, representative and any others you may know. The Judicial Department constitutes a separate, co-equal branch of government that is being starved of adequate funding because the legislature has not received the message from a sufficient constituency. If we do not demand and receive the funding required for the Judicial Department, then, eventually, some element will give. Judicial positions will remain unfilled by competent candidates, the physical structure of the courthouse will crash in catastrophic failure, the antique computers will crash and records will be lost, felons will walk free, and the slow grinding of the justice system will seize up and stop.
If that happens, the Judicial Department will have the attention of the rest of government and all of the state. And then it will be too late.
This column appeared in the May 2007 issue of Multnomah Lawyer, the monthly newsletter of the Multnomah Bar Association. Peter Glade was president of the association from 2006 to 2007. View this article on the MBA's Web site at http://www.mbabar.org/docs/newsletters/ml_may2007.pdf
