In his 1852 novel “Bleak House,” set in a grimy, smoggy and hidebound London of the 1830s, Charles Dickens took on on a problem unresolved and worsened two centuries after: The interminable legal case.
His particular (fictional) target was the civil lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce, a battle over conflicting wills that in turn seemed to last beyond the grave: “This scarecrow of a suit has, over the course of time, become so complicated, that no man alive knows what it means. … Innumerable children have been born into the cause; innumerable young people have married into it; innumerable old people have died out of it.”
Something like that has threatened to happen in the mass swarm of cases, about 2,0000 of them at present, involving the large wildfires from 2020 linked to the PacifiCorp electric company. Half a decade has passed so far since the actual events involved, and in the normal patterns of legal resolutions, years more may pass before resolution or remuneration.
The old saw that justice delayed is justice denied comes clearly to mind.
Judge Steffan Alexander of Multnomah County seems to grasp that, and he has been taking steps to move the container box of cases ahead at a much faster clip than usual. If he succeeds, he could set a template for other long-running cases, in Oregon and beyond.
But more than a single judge’s work will be needed.
Big cases do not have to last forever. In Idaho, the Snake River Basin Adjudication, which resolved more than 150,000 water rights covering most of the state, was settled (nearly) within three decades, which may sound long but is lightning speed compared to most cases of the kind. Many western state water adjudications involving only a few score rights can drag on for half a century. Careful organization, among other conditions, can make a big difference.
But it’s not easy.
The legal morass emerging from the massive Oregon wildfires of 2020, which left massive damage in its wake, had many causes, from housing sprawl to climate change, but one in particular targeted for damages: the electric utility PacifiCorp, based at Portland. The utility is attached to a large outside source of funds: Berkshire Hathaway Energy, one of billionaire Warren Buffett’s properties.
The legal activity has found traction. A massive case in 2023 led to a big jury award for about 1,500 plaintiffs, declaring PacifiCorp showed recklessness and gross negligence. The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a case as well.
The remaining cases in Alexander’s court involve about 2,000 plaintiffs, and PacifiCorp has asked for separate damages trials in each case, which would be enormously costly and take many years to carry out. So massive is the case load that the court’s database system hasn’t been able to keep up. New solutions are needed. The years-old case has yielded basic verdicts for just 300 claimants, and appeals may keep them from getting compensation for years to come.
One law professor speculated, “Maybe they [PacifiCorp] think they can outlast the other side.” The utility would have motivation: At least one estimate puts the amount of damages realistically at stake at around $10 billion.
On July 28, Judge Alexander signed a new case management order (opposed by PacifiCorp) with the intent of drastically speeding the process. It called among other things for running four damages trials every month, beginning in February 2026, then in the following January doubling that to eight per month. Alexander estimated that by March 2028, all of the cases should be resolved.
This is a serious attempt, at least, to try to bring resolution to the cases without stretching them out to the unforeseeable future.
There is a limit, though, to what a single judge can do, and even this effort is holding off justice for a long time. There are procedures used in some very large legal cases, such as use of special masters to develop sweeping resolutions, that haven’t been used here; the objection of one party can sometimes block the way.
The courts have to operate within the limits of the law, and within their budgets, and in those two areas the Oregon Legislature could step in to help.
On the budgetary side, more judges and related staff and facilities, to allow more simultaneous action, would help.
And so would changes in some of the laws governing the allowable procedures, from discovery to court postponements to much more, which could be reviewed for fairness through a large lens – fairness to parties who are priced out or timed out of getting legal redress. (There’s been one estimate that 50 of the original plaintiffs in the PacifiCorps cases have died since the cases first were filed.)
Too many legal cases and courts have long been the locus of an American Bleak House. That need not be the case forever.
Randy Stapilus has researched and written about Northwest politics and issues since 1976 for a long list of newspapers and other publications. This guest commentary is from news partner Oregon Capital Chronicle, and it may or may not reflect the views of The Corvallis Advocate, or its management, staff, supporters and advertisers.
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com