Ozark Profile: Carson thrives on bench while filling seat for Mashburn
Posted on Monday, January 5, 2009
BROOKE McNEELY Northwest Arkansas Times Fourth Circuit Judge Gary Carson, pictured here, is stepping down as judge for the 5th Division to let Judge Mike Mashburn serve in the position again. Carson took over for Mashburn in August of 2007 while Mashburn recovered from a stroke.
Gary Carson probably would have never practiced law or served as a circuit judge in Northwest Arkansas if he'd applied for law school sooner back home in Kentucky.
Carson said after he graduated from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky., in 1969, he'd planned to attend law school at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., but he filed his application too late and faced the prospect of sitting out a semester before he could to get in.
He was afraid that, if he waited, he'd never go to law school, so he called a long lost uncle who taught at the University of Arkansas law school in Fayetteville.
After he was accepted at UA, he moved his mobile home from Kentucky to Fayetteville. He\'s been here ever since.
After graduating law school, Carson said he interviewed for a job in a 30-story building in Louisville, Ky., but he took a job in Northwest Arkansas instead, working for James Evans Sr., an attorney who served as a municipal judge in Springdale. A few years later, he set up his private practice in Fayetteville.
"I always wanted to go back, but I fell in love with Arkansas."
Appointed judge
After 4th Judicial Circuit Judge Mike Mashburn resigned his 5th Division seat in July 2007 after suffering from a stroke earlier that year, Carson said he was approached by several people about filling the vacancy.
The 5th Division judge hears domestic relations, civil, probate and protective order cases, which was right up Carson\'s alley because that's mostly what he'd done during 35 years of practicing law.
"It fit what I'd been doing. I felt comfortable," Carson said.
When he asked Gov. Mike Beebe for the appointment, he told the governor that he would not run for a judicial post when his term ran out. Carson said he did not think that would be fair and he wanted to leave a level playing field for whoever else wanted to run.
Carson said he was surprised that he got the appointment because he said he had "zero political clout" and others who wanted the post did, but ultimately his experience won out.
Mashburn, who replaced Carson on Friday, said he's heard that Carson did a good job on the bench.
Carson said that, as a judge, he tried to be patient with lawyers and not make them look bad when they made mistakes, even though some judges do.
"As a judge, you have an opportunity to embarrass a lawyer in front of his client. That's not any place to do it," Carson said. "There's not a lawyer that'll say I ever did that to them."
Carson didn't shy away from complicated cases. In November, Carson presided over a complicated 13-day trial in a product liability case filed by a family against Chrysler Motors. Pretrial motions required more than a week of hearings before the trial.
"It was just incredible. You don't see that kind of case very often." Carson said. "I'm sure Judge Mashburn is glad he does not have to hear that case."
Judges' lunch club
Carson said he appreciates the way the other judges in the courthouse have offered their guidance, support and friendship. In fact, Carson has become a regular in the judges' lunch club.
"I can't say enough about how well they've treated me," Carson said. "They've made it very clear if I had a question, don't be afraid to ask."
Circuit Judge William Storey said Carson asked for little help and quickly learned to be a good judge.
"It was almost as if he'd been doing this for 10 or 15 years," Storey said. "I've seen cases where new judges spend a lot of time seeking counsel. He seemed to adapt to the judgeship immediately."
"I'm going to miss him. He's done an outstanding job on the bench," Storey said. "Hopefully he will some day be back on the bench."
"I've heard nothing but outstanding comments from attorneys in his court," said Circuit Judge Kim Smith. "He's very professional."
Carson has regularly joined Storey, Smith, Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay and others for food, friendship and conversation at their favorite lunch spot on Dickson Street. It's a place where the judges, attorneys and others routinely meet to visit.
"It's a great source of information," Carson said. "Years ago we met at the Mountain Inn for coffee."
Some surprises
Carson mostly knew what to expect, but he was surprised by a few of the different duties for this circuit judge position. For example, the judge must decide whether to commit someone's family member into a mental health facility.
Carson had to decide whether elderly people living in poor conditions should be placed into adult protective services, he said.
He also decided whether to allow property forfeitures in cases where cash or other items were seized by police in drug cases.
He also conducted hearings to decide whether to approve transfers of structured settlements. There are cases, for example, where an insurance company agrees to make annual payments for a number of years to an injured child and the parents want to trade this income stream for a lump sum.
Carson said he had no experience as an attorney in these types of cases.
Difficult decisions
Judges often must make difficult decisions, such as in child custody, divorce or mental commitment cases. Carson said the most difficult and gut-wrenching cases involved taking a child away from his or her mother.
He recalled one case where he took a 3-year-old child from her mother after the child had been found on three different occasions in the middle of U.S. 62 West.
"I had to do something. I felt like if I didn't do something that child might be dead now," he said.
Carson learned that it's very important to make decisions in domestic relations cases because- regardless of the outcome of the decision- the problems seemed to diffuse once a decision was made and the uncertainty removed.
"Once a decision is made, the parties seem to settle down and live with the decision," Carson said. "It's the uncertainty that causes a lot of problems"
Must know law
The difference between working as an attorney and judge is that attorneys can rely on judges to know the law when they don't, but judges must know the law themselves and cannot rely on attorneys to do it for them, Carson said.
"You have to know what the law is and do your own research on every case," he said.
"On every case you hear, you have to be on top of it when you walk into the courtroom," Carson said. "Quite frankly, I was."
Future plans
Carson said he can't feasibly go back into private practice because he closed his office and sold the building after taking the judicial post.
"It's a private practice killer. I have nothing to go back to," Carson said.
But after 35 years, he admits that he\'s got no big desire to go back to practicing law. He is interested in getting certified with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Commission so that he can serve as a courtappointed mediator.
He'd also like to serve as a court-appointed counsel for children. As a judge, he's seen the need for courtappointed, or ad litem, attorneys. Because ad litem work pays less than many lawyers make in private practice, most of them shy away from this work, Carson said.
Carson is also looking forward to helping his wife, Judy, volunteer at Samaritan House, a food bank in Rogers, and with Fellowship Bible Church. He and his wife plan to visit his son in Florida and spend more time with a son and grandchildren in Lowell.
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