“It’s hard to point to a specific event or case [as a high point in a judge’s career,]” says now-retired Sixth District Judge Marvin Bagley on why he served as a judge, “but in general, with the people you work with and the work you do, you learn to frankly love the job. You feel like you can make a difference. Though there are times you can feel like you’re not making a difference, overall you feel like you’re doing something that’s good for society.”
(L-R) Chief Deputy Kane County Attorney Jeff Stott, Sixth District Court Clerk Holly Ramsay, Sixth District Court Judge Bagley, Public Defender William Leigh, Kane County Bailiff Brooke Troutman. Photo via Kane County Human Resources.
Judge Bagley took his seat as one of the Sixth District judges just under 16 years ago in January 2009. The Sixth District is the geographically largest judicial district in Utah, containing over 70,000 people across 16,000 miles; a jurisdiction covered by two district court judges and two juvenile court judges. Bagley described his choice to become a judge, stating, “I felt like it would be the peak of my legal career: something that gave me the opportunity to give back to the community after everything the community gave to me in my legal practice.”
Bagley described most of his expertise coming from Civil Litigation, experience that was expanded on throughout the judgeship. When asked what his advice would be to any aspiring lawyers and judges that might like to serve in a similar capacity that he did, Bagley replied, “Get as much experience in the legal field in as many different areas as possible. That’s particularly for the area we live in, in Rural Utah. A Rural Utah judge can’t really ‘specialize,’ we take everything across the board, so that’d be my recommendation: don’t be afraid to take a case and learn how to do personal injury, or divorce or contract litigation Don’t be afraid to take a criminal case, or an adoption case … get a full, broad range of experience.”
With Judge Bagley’s retirement, the search begins for a successor to fill the vacant Sixth District Seat. While there was an appointment made by the governor, the applicant withdrew, leaving it in question who will assume the judgeship next. There will be an application and nomination process that will ultimately resolve at the governor’s office, with a statutory deadline following the applications. In the interim, the other judges within the Sixth District are preparing to adjust, and judges from other districts have offered to manage Bagley’s cases.
When asked what his plans are going forward, Judge Bagley replied, “I retired at my 66th birthday, I thought that was good timing. I have grandchildren I’d like to spend time with. We also have the goal of serving a mission. We haven’t set a date for that, it’s in the future.” “I’d just like to say,” Bagley concluded, “that I have the utmost respect for all of the people I’ve worked with in Kane County. Holly and Susan the court clerks, the prosecutors and the defense, corrections, the drug court team and victim advocates … everybody. I just have so much respect for everyone in the court system that I worked with. You can’t do that sort of work with people for so long and not love them.”
