Judges leaving three open seats at Fourth District Court
From left, Charlotte Howard Saguibo, Camille Howard Mackay, Fourth District Court Judge Fred D. Howard and Saratoga Springs Justice Court Judge Carolyn E. Howard pose for a photograph in Judge Howard's courtroom at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, on Thursday, July 7, 2016. Judge Fred D. Howard will retire from the bench, leaving a vacancy. CHRIS SAMUELS, Daily Herald.
Judge David Mortensen poses for a photograph in the appellate courtroom at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Judge Mortensen was appointed to the Utah Court of Appeals in May by Gov. Gary Herbert. CHRIS SAMUELS, Daily Herald.
From left, Charlotte Howard Saguibo, Fourth District Court Judge Fred D. Howard, Saratoga Springs Justice Court Judge Carolyn E. Howard and Camille Howard Mackay pose for a photograph in Judge Howard's courtroom at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, on Thursday, July 7, 2016. Judge Fred D. Howard will retire from the bench, leaving a vacancy. CHRIS SAMUELS, Daily Herald.
Judge David Mortensen works in his chambers at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Judge Mortensen was appointed to the Utah Court of Appeals in May by Gov. Gary Herbert. CHRIS SAMUELS, Daily Herald.
From left, Charlotte Howard Saguibo, Fourth District Court Judge Fred D. Howard, Saratoga Springs Justice Court Judge Carolyn E. Howard and Camille Howard Mackay pose for a photograph in Judge Howard's courtroom at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, on Thursday, July 7, 2016. Judge Fred D. Howard will retire from the bench, leaving a vacancy. CHRIS SAMUELS, Daily Herald.
From left, Charlotte Howard Saguibo, Camille Howard Mackay, Fourth District Court Judge Fred D. Howard and Saratoga Springs Justice Court Judge Carolyn E. Howard pose for a photograph in Judge Howard's courtroom at the Fourth District Courthouse in Provo, on Thursday, July 7, 2016. Judge Fred D. Howard will retire from the bench, leaving a vacancy. CHRIS SAMUELS, Daily Herald.
Judge David Mortensen poses for a photograph in the appellate courtroom at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Judge Mortensen was appointed to the Utah Court of Appeals in May by Gov. Gary Herbert. CHRIS SAMUELS, Daily Herald.
Judge David Mortensen works in his chambers at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Judge Mortensen was appointed to the Utah Court of Appeals in May by Gov. Gary Herbert. CHRIS SAMUELS, Daily Herald.
Judge David Mortensen poses for a photograph in the appellate courtroom at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Judge Mortensen was appointed to the Utah Court of Appeals in May by Gov. Gary Herbert. CHRIS SAMUELS, Daily Herald.
Judge David Mortensen poses for a photograph in his chambers at the Matheson Courthouse in Salt Lake City, on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Judge Mortensen was appointed to the Utah Court of Appeals in May by Gov. Gary Herbert. CHRIS SAMUELS, Daily Herald.
Just as laws are constantly changing, so are the practitioners and administrators of the law.
On Jan. 1, three district court judges will be leaving openings for their seats in Provo. One, Judge David Mortensen, has already begun work at his new position as a judge at the Utah Court of Appeals. The other two, judges Fred Howard and Claudia Laycock, will be retiring after many years of service to Provo and the justice system.
“I hope that I was fair and a hard worker and tried to get the right answers,” said Mortensen. “I’m sure I made mistakes and I’m sure I made decisions that made others perfectly happy.”
Judge David Mortensen
Mortensen has served as a judge in the Fourth District Court for nearly a decade. Mortensen’s first inspiration to work in the appellate courts came while he was attending law school at Brigham Young University.
“Every student has to write an appellate brief and argue it with appellate judges,” he said. “I participated in that in law school and that piqued my interest.”
For 10 years, Mortensen watched as many of his rulings were reviewed by appellate judges. Every so often, Mortensen sat in as a substitute when state Supreme Court justices reviewed rulings. And his interest was continually piqued.
Mortensen was nominated not once, not twice, but eight times to take a seat at the appellate court.
“Eventually, the persistence paid off,” he laughed.
Mortensen took his new position in the middle of June and was officially sworn in as an appellate court judge Thursday.
Since his appointment, Mortensen has quickly come to understand the vast differences between the district courts and the appellate courts.
“There would hardly be a day go by in district court where I wasn’t in court. That’s the polar opposite in appellate courts,” he said. “You’re reading a transcript instead of getting that human element. … I’m missing that.”
While working at the Fourth District Court, Mortensen was also an adjunct professor at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU. This experience, he said, helped him keep a renewed focus on service in the judiciary.
“Frankly, you sometimes deal with attorneys who have been practicing for 20 years and are less excited about the law,” he said. “These kids are bright-eyed and bushy tailed.”
Mortensen said he hopes to establish the same reputation of fair judgments that he had at the Fourth District Court in his new seat at the Court of Appeals.
Judge Fred Howard
Howard began his law career as a deputy county attorney in Carbon County in 1979. After several years of prosecution, he worked at his father’s firm of Howard Lewis and Petersen. Howard worked his own civil practice after that, before applying to take the bench in July 1995.
“It’s been a real special assignment and it’s been a real honor to serve our community,” he said.
Practicing law is in Howard’s blood. His father and grandfather were both attorneys, and now, the next generation, his children, are taking their turn in law.
Three of Howard’s nine daughters have careers in law. His daughter Judge Carolyn Howard presides over the Saratoga Springs Justice Court. His daughter Camille Mackay will take the bar exam within the next few weeks. And his daughter Charlotte Saguibo recently accepted a position with the Utah County Attorney’s Office.
“I couldn’t dissuade them,” he said smiling.
This concentration of law professionals can often make Sunday dinners interesting.
“There’s at least an hour or two of law discussions going on at a time,” Saguibo joked.
“We don’t always agree with our dad,” Carolyn Howard quipped. “We tend to put him to task.”
“Yeah, there are a lot of arguments,” Fred Howard said with humorous exasperation.
Howard said he will serve the rest of the year on the bench, presiding over cases and exercising just and fair judgment.
To him, no case in particular in his two decades as a judge sticks out, rather, he hopes he treated each case with individual care.
“I really think that every case is important. Even small cases are important because they affect the lives of these individuals,” he said. “It has a personal impact upon them. So I learned very quickly that small cases can be very important to people.
His daughters agreed that his demeanor in the courtroom reflected at home and he was always fair and judicious in their lives.
“I think he’s really set a good example to us as to the caliber you can have in the legal field and a good example of how to be a good person,” Mackay said. “He is the same way at home as he is on the bench. With nine girls at home, there are a lot of opinions. A lot of chaos. And my dad will take a problem, and he’ll address it the same way he does in the courtroom.”
Once Howard retires, his daughters plan on keeping him busy as they ask for legal advice or opinions on cases.
“I once came into his office late at night, and he just looked at me and said, ‘The law office is closed!'” Carolyn Howard joked.
He’s also an accomplished painter, and much of his artwork hangs on the walls of the Fourth District Courthouse. Howard plans to dedicate more time to painting the beauty of Utah, while also making more time for his children and grandchildren.
Judge Claudia Laycock
Laycock was appointed to the Fourth District Court in January 2001. She graduated from BYU in 1974 and was admitted to the Utah State Bar in 1985.
In 1988, she joined the Utah County Attorney’s Office and prosecuted until her appointment to the bench.
For 12 years, Laycock also served on the board of the Women and Children in Crisis Center in Provo.
Laycock declined to comment on her retirement, but acknowledged that she will serve with the same vigor she has always had until her very last day on the bench at the end of the year.
Future of Fourth District Court
With Mortensen already out of Provo, Judge Christine Johnson, who was serving the Fourth District Court in American Fork, has moved to Provo to take over his calendar.
Mortensen was also the presiding judge at the Fourth District Court, and with his move, Judge Darold McDade is now the presiding judge.
With Johnson in Provo, the judges are on a rotation of who handles her calendar in American Fork. Every day is a different judge, which can sometimes be confusing for the attorneys who don’t know who to expect on the bench each day.
But for now, each member of the courtroom is making do with the limitations.
Attorneys from Utah County and surrounding counties are in the process of submitting their names for the three judicial openings. The governor will then make the final appointments later this year.
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