Comment #: OR498
Rating:8.0
Comments:
I have been appearing in front of Judge Collins as a non-custodial self-represented litigant for the past 12 years over child support and parenting time matters.

Judge Collins is overall fair, but will sometimes base decisions on intuition, despite hard facts (which, at scale, is probably the best approach). As an example, I had supervised parenting time the first 5 times with my daughter, absent any findings that I was unfit or a danger to my child (A prerequisite for ordering supervised parenting time). On the flip side, Judge Collins gave me a much larger credit against child support for parenting time travel expenses than I was asking for. Also, when I had to break a contract I made with my daughter's mother, he denied the other party's motion for attorney's fees as the court made a finding that I acted in good faith and in the best interests of my child.

Although Judge Collins has put me in some tight spots over the years (very few), this probably had more to do with me not knowing how to present arguments in court very well early on; however, he has also cut me some slack as a self represented litigant.

From a family court perspective, I think he is overall very fair. If you are a civil and reasonably intelligent person, I believe that will be reciprocated and rewarded in his court. He has always shown me kindness in his court. Based on what I've seen, he is MUCH better than Judge Cynthia Easterday (A judge in the same court I've only observed but never appeared in front of).

Comment #: OR393
Rating:1.0
Comments:
This judge is absolutely terrible. He awarded a permanent stalking order to a petitioner that had absolutely no evidence or witnesses to support his claim when I had both evidence and witnesses. He made his judgment based soley upon his personal preferences. He asked no questions of the petetioner, despite the fact that he read his statement directly from his TRO application and did not really testify. Collins allowed absolutely irrevelant, prejudicial and untrue information to be presented. I believe he had already made up his mind before the hearing even started.

Comment #: OR211
Rating:6.3
Comments:
I used to appear in front of Judge Collins regularly for more than 10 years, but moved away from Oregon a bunch of years ago so my experience is not recent. Judge Collins is a nice guy, is usually friendly and calm and can often be totally fair and impartial. However, he definitely favors the prosecution over the defense on criminal cases, which is not surprising really since he used to be the DA of Yamhill County. However, in one serious criminal trial where he personally knew some of the state's witnesses (which he did not disclose until the trial was under way), he acted with complete partiality, animosity and bias toward me and my client in front of the jury to such a grave degree that, on retrial (after a hung jury), I had to confront and tell him that he needed to remove himself from the case or that I would file a Motion to Recuse him for bias. He did then remove himself from the case but then -- as presiding judge -- he appointed one of the most prosecution biased Judges in the entire State of Oregon to take over my case. Because I had no more affidavits of prejudice remaining, I could not get rid of this judge, even after I had 20 other defense lawyers tell me its malpractice to let this judge handle my case. Though I could not prove it, I was convinced that Judge Collins assigned this biased judge as payback for my confrontational approach. This other judge was from far, far away County and had never before stepped foot in Yamhill County to my knowledge (prior to my case). Judge Stone was a friend who I helped get elected but then, from what I heard, kind of became a mediocre judge. I had limited experiences with him as I left Oregon.