Charles Williams

“The Meaning of Justice”

As a candidate for Thurston County Superior Court Judge, I am going to talk to you about the meaning of justice, because the job of a Superior Court Judge is to administer justice.

But, first, let me explain why I’m seeking this office and why I’m qualified to serve. People forget that law, like medicine, is a service profession. As lawyers, our value is measured, not by the money we make, but by the benefits we confer upon those we serve. Many lawyers, including me, believe that there is no higher calling than being a judge, no higher accomplishment than the just resolution of disputes, and no higher service than doing this job well.

All my adult life — some 34 years — has been spent laboring in the trenches of the law as a paralegal for the State Attorney General, as a administrative-law judge for the State Personnel Board, as a private attorney practicing family, criminal and personal-injury law and as a pro tem judge in juvenile and district courts. Now this is precisely the kind of experience that develops the knowledge and the skills needed for judging.

But judging is not the same as justice. Judging is the drawing of legal conclusions from the impartial application of law to facts. To be sure, this is no trivial feat. The facts must be accurately determined from the evidence, and the law must be properly interpreted from its sources.

In my view, to achieve justice, judges have to go beyond judging. They have to go beyond the role of autonomous decision-makers and come together cooperatively as managers of the courthouse. For justice is nothing less than giving people access to the court, ensuring procedural fairness in the handling of their cases, and timeliness in deciding outcomes.

The absence of justice never goes unnoticed. There is no justice if the court is deaf to the voices of children or victims. There is no justice if you don’t feel safe in a public area of a courthouse. There is no justice if court rules and procedures are so complicated they’re incomprehensible to you. There is no justice if you can’t obtain case information without difficulty and delay. There no justice if your judge stands for a special-interest group instead of the law. There is no justice if the judge discriminates or tolerates discrimination against you. There is no justice if the court postpones your trial without good cause.

There are many more examples.

To conclude: access, procedural fairness and timeliness define justice. With your help, your endorsements and your votes, you may just get a judge into office who knows the meaning of justice. Thank you.