Appearing At The Washington County Circuit Court
If you’ve been cited, noticed, or lettered to appear in the Washington County Circuit Court, where exactly to appear can be a little confusing.
This video is an explanation for where to appear at the Washington County Courthouse or Washington County Law Enforcement Center in Hillsboro Oregon.
Where to Appear & Where to Park if You Have Court Business at the Washington County Circuit Court
Michael Romano here, Oregon trial attorney. I’m putting this video up for people who have any court business out in Hillsboro at the Washington County Circuit Court. I found in the past that it can be a little bit confusing for clients and prospective clients and witnesses to figure out where they’re supposed to go when they’ve been cited or asked to appear in Washington County Circuit Court.
The first thing you need to think about to take a look at in terms of whether you’ve been summoned, cited, noticed to appear is whether it’s a criminal matter or a civil matter, or a domestic relations matter, if you will.
If you’ve got an arraignment out in Hillsboro in Washington County Circuit Court, and especially if it’s for a DUI on a criminal case, you’re going to want to go to the Washington County Law Enforcement Center, which is in a totally different location in the Washington County Courthouse. So the Washington County Law Enforcement Center looks like this from the outside, from the street, the entrance is over here, and the courtroom, which you can’t enter directly, but you can see just for orientation here, I’ll show you the courtroom is over here, and this is where you’d be arraigned on a DUI maybe, or like diversion eligible, maybe you’re going to have a release hearing on a DUI or a release hearing in another criminal case. This is probably where it’s going to be heard, now, what I’m saying here is not definitive and you’re going to need to double check with your lawyer, check with the courthouse, but for most DUI arrangements, most release hearings, they’re going to be held over here. And part of the reason for that is, this is the jail. So this is the Washington County Sheriff’s Office headquarters is right here, and the Washington County Jail is located here. So they actually have a way where people can come from the jail, inmates can come from the jail into this courtroom for release hearings, and they’re sort of a glass partition, and that’s part of the reason that they have these hearings out here for matters where they need to transport inmates to the courthouse, which is opposite of this picture, they do have a means to do that, they’ll take them over in a van, but release hearings are typically held here, so just be aware if you’ve got a DUI arraignment or release hearing in Washington County Circuit Court, pretty good bet that you’re going to be in the law enforcement center, which is over here, it’s the same thing as the jail or the sheriff’s office headquarters, parking for that building is right across the street. Very convenient. I’ve parked here all day for multi-day trials, I don’t think you’re going to find that you’re going to get a ticket, a very convenient place to park, you’re not allowed to park out here on the street, it’s almost always taken over by law enforcement or the parking time is limited to something like 10-15 minutes, which isn’t going be enough for any court appearances, so you can park inside this parking garage.
One other thing to mention is that if you have a DUI and your license has been suspended, or you had a listed administrative suspension for an Implied Consent breath test failure, if you got a DUI you will know what that’s about, the MAX station is actually right here, and the MAX line goes right to the end here, it’s very convenient, you can actually take the MAX to your court appearance at the Washington County Law Enforcement Center if you like. Very convenient, you just walk simply across the street and there you are.
Now, one of the thing I’m going to mention when I get to talking about the courthouse is the Washington County Courthouse sometimes can be difficult to park, divine parking around it, and so you may actually wanna park in this parking structure and then walk over to the courthouse. And I’ll show you how you would do that. So if you park here, you can take the elevator, the stairs here, all you have to do is walk down to the street here, you’re going to go out here and make a left, and it’s about a two or three block walk, but it’s not too bad.
And here you are at the courthouse, which we’ll talk about, there’s the Justice Center, and then the court house is over here on a busy day in court, it’s hard to find parking out here, there are some EV spots here, if you like to charge your car but they’re often taken now with the popularity of EVS and out here, there’s no parking at all along this street, and then the residential area over here often doesn’t have much parking on busy days. So just be aware of that. Okay, so the main reason I’m filming this video and posting it online is Here’s where things get confusing. Okay, when people talk about going to… Forget about the law enforcement center over here for a minute. We just talked about that, that’s if you’ve got an arraignment or something like that, you’re going to go into this building, but let’s say you’ve got a family law matter, a divorce, a child custody dispute, a civil matter, like a personal injury case, contract dispute, something like that, you’re going to be in the Washington County Courthouse until… The problem with that is there’s actually two buildings, they’re labeled differently and they’re connected by a little walkway, this little area here sort of connects these two buildings, they were built at different times.
They have completely different architecture, and it can be a little confusing when you don’t know which floor you’re supposed to go on, so I’ll explain…
If you’ve got court business in the Washington County Courthouse, this is what it looks like from the outside, classic Greco-Roman architecture with the columns here, if you’ve got business in courtrooms 101, 102, 103 and so on, also 201-202-203 or 301-302-303. And so on it, you’re going to be in this building. Now, that may sound obvious at first glance, that seems pretty straight forward, but what’s confusing is if you’ve been cited into court or noticed in the court and you’ve got any business in the 400 series of courtrooms… Well, you can see the problem here. There isn’t a fourth floor on this court house, you’re going to have to go over to the Justice Services Building. And so the 400 series of courtrooms are up here on the fourth floor. For example, judge Charles Bailey is up here. Judge Theodore Sims is up here. And so if you’ve been told that you need to appear in the 400 series of courtrooms, you’re not going to be able to get to that level in this building, ’cause there isn’t a fourth floor. So just keep that in mind. And the reason this is confusing as a lot of people will think, Oh, okay, well, if the 400 series of court rooms are in this building, well, then the 300, 200 and 100 series must be in this building as well, they’re not…
The first floor of this courthouse is all really… We’ll get to this one extra exception, but this is all administrative office is really on the first floor of this building, the second floor is parole and probation, which some people might need to check into for criminal matters. The third floor is, I believe the DA’s office, and then the fourth floor is courtrooms and judicial chambers. There’s one exception, and that is on the first floor of the justice services building.
There is a courtroom that takes up restraining order applications and contested restraining order hearings, only to my knowledge, they don’t hear anything else in that courtroom in that courtroom. I don’t know the number, but you can look it up online, you would go in this entrance, make a left and then an almost immediate left the courtroom someplace in here. So as if it isn’t confusing enough, you’d think, Okay, well, I’ve got something on the first floor of the courthouse, the first floor courtroom, well, for restraining order applications and contested hearings, that’s one exception, there is a courtroom over here, I hope that this video was helpful and I didn’t actually make it more confusing for you, but I did wanna explain that depending on which courtroom you’re going to be, and you’re going to be in one of two buildings and just be aware of that this is the justice services building. This is the old-fashioned Courthouse. If you did find this video helpful, please, as the kids say, Today, smash that Like button, it helps with the YouTube algorithm and we appreciate it, and no matter what business you’ve got out in the Washington County Circuit Court, I wish you the best of luck. Take care.