Oregon Judicial Department completes successful test of emergency response trailers for court operations

The Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) conducted a successful emergency preparedness exercise this week to test one of its Emergency Response Trailers to ensure the equipment is functional and court staff are familiar with how it works.

The exercise included two hours of Marion County Circuit Court hearings held remotely from within a "mobile courthouse" at the Oregon State Fairgrounds.

In 2009, OJD acquired two Emergency Response Trailers, based in different areas of the state: one in Salem and the other in Bend. The trailers are equipped with the necessary technology and infrastructure to support critical court operations and can be rapidly deployed during natural disasters or other events where a courthouse becomes inaccessible.

"As a court system, we do have an obligation to provide access to justice, and that is during blue sky days when nothing is going wrong and also during emergency events, whether they're man-made or natural disasters," said Mike Ford, emergency manager for OJD's Marshal's Office. "If we don't have access to our building, we still need to make sure that we have a place where we can provide court services to the public, no matter rain, shine, natural disaster, whatever it may be."

The exercise ran for two days, beginning on day one with unloading the trailer and assembling everything it contains: two vinyl tents that can be connected or stand separately, complete with HVAC systems, lighting, wi-fi, and other equipment to ensure the court could operate remotely.

Court and emergency management personnel from neighboring counties were invited to tour the shelters and the trailer to see first-hand how they look and function. Staff from OJD's Marshal's Office and the Enterprise Technology Services Division were on hand to deploy the trailer and its contents, test systems, explain the available features, and answer questions.

OJD has made several improvements since purchasing the trailers in 2009. The original tents were replaced with rapid-inflatable shelters that cut the set-up time from four hours to 20 minutes. In 2025, the trailers' networking capabilities were upgraded to use Starlink for reliable, high-speed satellite internet.

On day two of the exercise, the Marion County Circuit Court held two hours of proceedings from the tents to use the technology and equipment as they would in the event of a deployment. Court staff said they were impressed with the setup and offered suggestions on what the trailers could include to make court operations even better in the future.

In the years since they were first acquired by OJD, the trailers have been deployed several times. In 2010, a snow and ice storm caused pipes to burst in the Baker County Courthouse. For almost three weeks, court operations were run out of Emergency Response Trailers in the parking lot while the pipes were repaired.

In 2025, damage from the Elk Fire caused outages for the Lake County Circuit Court. Within a day, thanks to satellite internet services provided by a trailer, the court was one of the first government agencies in the area to resume operations.

"Hearing that we have two of these in the state of Oregon is a big relief," said Judge Matthew Tracey, a hearings referee who presided over remote hearings as part of the exercise. "One could imagine that if one county could go offline, several counties could go offline at any time. It's going to be critical to our counties that court can be held for essential emergency functions no matter what happens."

Judge Tracey emphasized the importance of keeping courts functional, even in active emergencies, because people who interact with the court may have urgent or time-sensitive business.

"People might think we can just hand-wave those legal deadlines away, but try to tell that to a person who's waiting in jail for their first appearance, or parties who need protection from someone actively endangering their lives," he said. "So in order to keep our communities safe, happy, and functional, we need to have access to the court or as many of those services as possible no matter what emergencies might occur."