HEY, I JUST SAW THIS MOVIE!

The Oregon Courts are shutting their doors this Friday and every Friday through at least June, 2009. What is wrong with that? Many things. But, let me use Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul De Muniz' own words: "...Oregon's courts are the legal equivalent of the emergency room."De Muniz, The State of the Courts (2009). So, if an Oregon citizen needs the legal equivalent of emergency open-heart surgery this coming Friday, I hope somebody warns J. Q. Citizen ‘they are going to die'.

2009 -- The Court's are closing, yet, Chief Justice De Muniz' articulated number one (1) goal in 2009 is to "(e)nsure public access to court services. People come to us when they are in distress or have urgent problems that need to be resolved quickly and fairly, so time is of the essence." Judicial Emperors.

2003 -- The Oregon Supreme Court shut our courts down on Fridays just six years ago and asked court staff to take the financial hit. I innocently asked Chief Justice Carson at a Bar meeting at the time....."Why don't Oregon judges lead by example and voluntarily reduce their salaries by 19% too since you are asking staff to take such a salary reduction?" Now, Oregon Supreme Court Chief Justice De Muniz is again shutting our courts down on Fridays. The timing is interesting because OREGON JUDGES JUST GOT A RAISE! A 19.4% raise in 2007-2008. Once again, the leader of 1,900 public court employees is asking the worker-bees to take a 19% salary reduction because they are only going to be working 4/5 of the week. Do you see the contradiction? What will the judges be doing on Fridays? Fishing. And getting paid for it. Not only that, but there will be about thirty (30) more judges going fishing on Fridays, all added by Chief Justice De Muniz in the same two year period the existing judges got a raise by the Oregon legislature. Presumably these new judges will be having Friday off also. The judges get a lighter work load through the additional numbers of judges, Friday off, and a raise.........and their employees get the shaft.

HOW TO AVOID COURT CLOSINGS -- In 2003, Oregon was undergoing a budget crisis. I sat in a room at Willamette Law School with Oregon Bar President Charlie Williamson and the rest of the Bar leadership of the Oregon State Bar Board of Governors. Charlie was absent-mindedly shaking his head in mild despair. Here we were, Oregon legal profession's best and brightest. Yet, Chief Justice "Wally" Carson had just announced the 2003 court closing program on Fridays without any input from Bar leadership. We were stunned, because nobody at the Oregon Supreme Court had asked Bar leadership about how this calamity could be avoided. We had all sorts of ideas how to avoid shutting our courtroom doors to the public, but nobody asked us. The courts, after all, are where Oregon lawyers work too.

Right now I am looking at the lovely mug of Lee Iaccoca. He wrote a prescient book in 2007 asking "Where Have All Our Leaders Gone?". That is my question right here and right now. It was fitting when Justice Carson announced his retirement at the Oregon State Bar House of Delegates meeting. Before he could end his announcement, the lights went out in the meeting hall, and Justice Carson shuffled off to ignominy still in the dark. Chief Justice De Muniz is heading down the same path. Likewise, Oregon State Bar's last President, Rick Yugler, went out in 2008 with a wimpy Bar annual business meeting without minutes and without a quorum. No leadership.

I HAVE SEEN THIS MOVIE BEFORE -- This budget crises is an old movie. We didn't learn our lesson of leadership in 2003 and we have no meaningful leadership now. It would be relatively easy to keep our court room doors open if the Oregon State Bar had real leaders. One resource that could easily be tapped is the local county bars who have a vested interest in the operation of their local county courthouse.  Every major county has a bar association with eager local county bar Presidents who could easily muster, through their local leadership, local lawyers to join with our stellar court staff to keep these court rooms open for the benefit of the public needing emergency room justice.

On the other hand, because our judiciary in many of these courtrooms is so mediocre, maybe it is time to turn them out completely and establish citizen justice on our own. It is time to challenge authority which is not providing leadership.