Fountain Circuit Decide Stephanie Campbell (Picture courtesy of Campbell)
Fountain Circuit Decide Stephanie Campbell is a born-and-raised Fountain County woman, and that’s the way in which she likes it.
Positive, generally the road between being Stephanie and being Decide Campbell can get blurred when she’s out in public. However for Campbell, the individuals who seem in her courtroom aren’t simply litigants — they’re her neighbors.
“There’s no place I’d reasonably be,” Campbell stated of Fountain County. “It’s an amazing job — I’m honored to have it, however I’m extra honored to be a part of an amazing county.
“That sounds sort of tacky, however I used to be a kind of typical youngsters in highschool, I couldn’t wait to get out of right here,” she added. “Now I can’t think about being wherever else.”
Except for faculty and regulation college, each of which introduced her to Indianapolis, the Veedersburg native has constructed her life and profession in her hometown. You may discover her on the bench on the courthouse in Covington, otherwise you may see her on the tractor at her household farm.
Given these deep roots, Campbell stated she hopes the residents of her county know the way severely she takes her work as their solely native choose.
“Hopefully they know that I care about this group extra than simply being their choose,” she stated, “but additionally being part of the group.”
Campbell is the newest Indiana trial courtroom choose to take part in Indiana Lawyer’s “Meet the judges” Q&A sequence spotlighting judges from extra rural communities. Right here’s what she needed to say about life on and off the bench.
The place’s your hometown?
Proper right here in Fountain County. I’m from Veedersburg, Indiana, and our declare to fame is that we had a brick manufacturing unit that made the bricks which might be the unique pavers for the (Indianapolis Motor Speedway) monitor.
The place did you get your undergrad diploma?
Butler College.
After which your regulation diploma?
IU-Indy (Now Indiana College Robert H. McKinney Faculty of Legislation).
Inform me about your curiosity in changing into a lawyer.
It most likely all began out with my father telling me in the future I needs to be a lawyer as a result of I prefer to argue a lot, and that sort of sparked my curiosity. However at Butler, I used to be a journalism and radio/TV main and I didn’t actually take into consideration being a lawyer anymore after perhaps my elementary college years. However I took a constitutional regulation class as a part of my undergraduate diploma and fell in love with it.
I took a yr off (after faculty) and was a disc jockey … I didn’t take life actual severely for a few yr. I additionally labored in a regulation agency throughout that point and fell in love with courtroom work. I had labored for an lawyer and that was type sufficient to let me tag alongside, and so then I knew I appreciated that greater than being a disc jockey. And I believed I higher take life severely and moved on to regulation college.
What sort of regulation agency was that?
It was a sole practitioner, very small city. I did reside in Indianapolis — I stayed there after I went to Butler, however it was on the south facet of Indianapolis in a small city referred to as Bargersville, and he was simply nice. I suppose there have been two attorneys in there, however I primarily labored for the one. He actually helped me perceive the truth that there was an honest residing to be made in a rural county, however lots of people that may very well be helped.
What did you do after regulation college?
Whereas I used to be in regulation college, I labored for the Division of Income of their Inheritance Tax Division and continued to work for them for only a bit after regulation college, however by then I used to be residing again right here in my hometown and driving backwards and forwards. Then I turned an affiliate with considered one of our small practices right here — an enormous agency for our county however a small apply by common requirements— and I stayed there for 10 years. Then I turned a sole practitioner for about seven years earlier than I took the bench — I suppose was nearly 10 years, just a little bit longer.
What sort of regulation did you apply?
You recognize, you must do some little bit of all the things, however primarily I did civil apply — household regulation and civil.
When did you resolve to hunt the bench?
I turned a part-time small claims Justice of the Peace commissioner for my predecessor and did that for six years whereas I had my solo apply and obtained to fill in for her so much and realized that I actually did get pleasure from it. After which when she retired, I made a decision to run. I ran towards our prosecuting lawyer, in order that was a tricky race. However fortuitously I used to be elected, and I’ve simply began my second time period.
What do you get pleasure from about being a choose?
That’s a superb query. There’s lots of issues to get pleasure from, however my coronary heart is with working with the youngsters that come via our courtroom system — to me, that’s a very powerful a part of my job. I’m the one choose in our county, so I see all of the instances, from the site visitors tickets all the way in which as much as the heaviest felony or the largest cash fusses between individuals. However there’s nothing extra necessary to me than the (kids in want of providers) instances, the custody instances, the place the children are actually caught within the center. The adoptions that I do, that’s the place my coronary heart lies. I don’t know if it’s my favourite half, however I feel it’s my most necessary half. I used to be a guardian advert litem, and I all the time loved that once I was a personal lawyer. And I’m a mother.
Being the one choose within the county, that’s most likely a novel expertise.
It’s. And we’re a small county — we solely have about 12,000 individuals, so there’s not very many individuals that you simply don’t know. And should you don’t know them, it’s solely about one diploma faraway from figuring out them. It’s exhausting, as a result of you realize so many individuals and also you already know their background and also you wish to be unbiased and open-minded about all the things. However I additionally suppose it provides the courtroom a greater understanding of what persons are going via once they are available in entrance of you and hopefully makes the courtroom extra compassionate, me extra compassionate as a choose, as a result of whilst you can’t put apart all the things that you realize, additionally, you will see them as a human being reasonably than simply one other litigant.
What do you suppose is exclusive about being a choose in a group like yours versus a Marion County or an Allen County?
It’s distinctive as a result of once I stroll out of right here, I’m really an individual, part of the group. And I feel having grown up right here and been a part of this group my entire life, individuals don’t simply see me as a choose; they see me as an individual.
Do you suppose there are any points by way of assets or anything that your judicial system may face versus a bigger county?
Oh, it’s an epidemic in each small county, simply the dearth of assets. So many individuals are battling their addictions and we don’t have the professionals right here to assist them. The professionals that assist cope with substance abuse don’t receives a commission sufficient anyway. They definitely don’t hunt down the smaller counties to apply there eternally, so we’d get a psychological well being skilled or another sort {of professional} for just a little bit, however normally we’re a steppingstone. The turnover is so exhausting on individuals with habit as a result of they arrive to belief the skilled after which they present up for his or her subsequent assembly and it’s any person else. We’re fortunate that we now have a core group, however they’re overwhelmed. They’re overworked. It’s scary.
I’ve heard about completely different efforts from the Indiana Supreme Court docket and the Legislature to attempt to present a few of these assets to communities like yours. Have you ever seen that trickle down but to your group?
We’re inventive as a result of we don’t have lots of funding, we don’t have the large tax base. Truthfully, it’s not even actually a lot concerning the cash. It’s concerning the boots on the bottom: How will we get individuals to come back right here and keep right here and be prepared to reside in a rural group as knowledgeable? I feel the funding is on the market, however we are able to’t get individuals to remain right here. We make do with what we are able to, and the professionals that we now have — the courtroom system, the probation officers — you see lots of the identical faces in lots of the identical conferences, they usually’re all prepared to do no matter they’ll, however there are solely so many individuals.
That’s sort of being a doomsday particular person. It’s simply the creativity in seeing the identical individuals day in and time out which might be right here and saying, “OK, what can we attempt subsequent?”
Is there a very memorable second out of your time on the bench that sticks with you?
Essentially the most memorable for me are once I do the adoptions. I sit up right here and I attempt to not present emotion, however once I get to do an adoption and place a toddler with their eternally household after perhaps spending two or three years in entrance of me on different instances, it’s not the tip that you simply’re hoping for whenever you begin the case, however it turns into obvious that that’s the path it’s going. To get to be part of that and see a toddler have stability and never surprise what’s coming subsequent of their lives is probably the most memorable factor. I’m going to begin crying simply serious about it! After which they arrive again they usually see me they usually’re doing nicely they usually have a household that perhaps they didn’t get from the get-go. These are the issues that preserve you going.
Is there something that you simply’ve discovered about your self throughout your time as a choose?
I suppose I’ve a persistence within the courtroom — more often than not, not on a regular basis — I didn’t understand I had that. I wasn’t actually affected person with my youngsters. I anticipated so much from them. I all the time instructed them, “Exceed expectations,” they usually did that nicely. However being a choose has taught me that not all people is on the identical monitor or the identical course, and so it’s helped me to grasp that my means is just not the one means.
What about whenever you’re not at work — what do you get pleasure from doing?
We’re very family-focused, and I simply turned a grandma inside the final yr, in order that’s actually introduced our youngsters collectively once more and we spend lots of time collectively as a household. We go to the lake. We like boating. Being a choose in a small county, I don’t wish to say it’s a 24-hour job, however it’s lots of hours, identical to lots of people have that sort of job. So it’s good to be with your loved ones and be conscious of the truth that I’m not only a choose.
In case you might change one factor concerning the apply of regulation, what would it not be?
As we educate attorneys, I wish to see these which might be going to be practitioners have extra real-world expertise. It’s so good to see an lawyer stroll into courtroom after they move the bar and this isn’t the primary time that they’ve been right here; these are the attorneys that appear extra well-rounded. So I wish to see the regulation colleges, and as younger attorneys come up via the ranks, get extra courtroom time, not simply guide time. I feel that’s a preparation and an schooling that’s priceless for an lawyer.
Is there anything we must always learn about you?
We’ve got a household farm, so once I’m not right here, I is perhaps on a tractor. I don’t thoughts that in any respect; it’s a pleasant change. I prefer to attempt new issues: I’ve completed beekeeping, I’ve raised pheasants, I’ve made maple syrup. I’m fairly family-focused — targeted on the children and targeted on the children within the courtroom.•
