In 2023, the Washington County Circuit Court beat the statewide average in timely resolution of criminal cases, but still fell below goals set by the Oregon Judicial Department.
In 2018, Oregon adopted its current “Time to Disposition” standards. These standards set a timeline in which cases should be resolved, delineated by case type and “play an important role in measuring access to timely justice through the circuit courts.”
For felony cases, the state aims to have 75% disposed or otherwise resolved within 90 days, 90% within 180 day, and 98% within a year.
Statewide, 62.4% of felony cases are resolved within 180 days or fewer, according to OJD data. Washington County trends slightly faster, with 66% of cases hitting that mark, amounting to 1,500 cases resolved within the goal timeframe.
However, that’s still significantly less than the target percentage. Out of 2,273 felony cases included in the data, the court would have had to resolve 2,046 within 180 days to meet the goal.
In fact, in terms of felony case resolution, not a single court district met any of the state’s goals.
The closest was Oregon’s 15th Judicial District, which covers Coos and Curry counties. Of the 475 felony cases the court handled last year, 87.4% were disposed within 180 days and 97.5% within a year. Just 12 felony cases, or 2.5%, were open longer than one year in the Coos and Curry Circuit courts, compared to 14.3% in Washington County, 15.7% statewide and the OJD target of 2%.
The two districts with the most similar volume of felony cases last year were Jackson County Circuit Court with 2,042, Marion County Circuit Court with 1,890 and Clackamas County Circuit Court with 1,678.
Washington County courts performed better than all three. In Jackson County, 51.9% of felony cases were resolved in 180 days, 52.3% were resolved by that threshold in Marion County and Clackamas County resolved 58.6%.
But the Washington County Circuit Court has been sliding further from the target every year. In 2022, the court resolved 68.9% of felony cases in 180 days, 71% in 2021, 81.6% in 2020, 84.8% in 2019 and 88.26% in 2018.
For misdemeanors the state goals are just about halved in terms of timeframe: 75% within 60 days, 90% within 90 days and 98% within 180 days.
Once again, no district court met or exceeded any of the metric goals, but Washington County leads the state in the number of misdemeanor cases resolved within 60 days at 59.7% last year.
Statewide, 55.8% of misdemeanor cases are resolved in 90 days. Washington County Circuit Court ranks in the top five districts on this metric with 71.3% in 90 days, beaten only by the Polk County Circuit Court, the Josephine County Circuit Court and the Coos and Curry Circuit courts.
In 2022, the Washington County court also resolved 71.3% of misdemeanor cases in 90 days — an improvement from its 2021 rate of 67.1% and of 70.3% in 2020, but still lower than the pre-COVID rates of 80.6% in 2019 and 81.2% in 2018.
The Oregon Legislature approved the addition of one new judge each in Washington, Clackamas and Jackson counties, effective July 1, 2025, to help temper the workload on the existing 15 judges.
Most Popular
Comments / 0