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Hamilton County, OH November 5, 2013 Election
Smart Voter

30 combined years of civil and criminal trial experience

By Heather S. Russell

Candidate for Judge; Hamilton County Municipal Court; District 5

This information is provided by the candidate
My 17 years as a criminal prosecutor combined with 12 years as a municipal court judge uniquely qualify me to continue as a municipal court judge.
As a prosecutor I have 17 years of prosecuting defendants who are charged with crimes. The caption of a criminal lawsuit is "State of Ohio vs Defendant," and except for minor misdemeanors like traffic tickets, a criminal Defendant faces the possibility of jail time. A civil case is where one person is suing another person, perhaps for breach of a contract, and they are seeking money damages, or they want the contract enforced. An example of a civil lawsuit might be that Plaintiff- homeowner is suing Defendant- window company because defendant installed faulty windows, and plaintiff either wants the Defendant to replace the windows properly, or they want the money to go out and hire another company to take out the bad windows and put in correct windows.

Many people think that a judge who comes with 17 years as a Hamilton County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney only has experience and strength in presiding over criminal cases. This is simply not true.

My 17 years as a prosecutor provided me with an expertise in trial procedure and my confidence and knowledge in how to deal with juries. However in my last 12 years as a municipal court judge I have presided over civil trials and pre-trials every week, and I have signed off on about 140,000 civil decisions, including bench and jury trials, appeals of magistrates' trials and decisions, requests for stays, and for writs.

I can assure voters that my combination of civil and criminal trial experience makes me uniquely qualified to be a municipal court judge.

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oh/hm Created from information supplied by the candidate: September 9, 2013 08:32
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