criminal prosecutor turned judge has civil litigation experience

By Heather S. Russell

While my 17 years as a criminal prosecutor provides me with an expertise in felony litigation, my last 11 years as a municipal court has provided me with the civil experience needed for common pleas court-the courts use the same rules!

The civil cases in common pleas and municipal court use the same civil rules of procedures, but the common pleas cases are more complex issues and the plaintiffs are suing for more money than municipal court cases. 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, including 14 years prosecuting felonies in common pleas court, provided me with an expertise in trial procedure and my confidence and knowledge in how to deal with juries. However in my last 11 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.

In municipal court I work with the same rules that I would be using in common pleas civil litigation. In my past elections my campaign chair has been from the prosecutors' office but in this election I purposefully chose an attorney who practices civil law to be my campaign manager, as a sign of my acknowledgement of the importance of experience in civil litigation.