Municipal Court Judge

Richard B. Brissenden

For the last Twenty-Seven years, Richard Brissenden has been the judge in Florence Municipal Court, a court of record.  For over twelve years, he was also the Municipal Judge in the city of Cottage Grove, and prior to that a Municipal Judge Pro Tem in the City of Eugene.

He was raised in Seal Beach, a coastal town in Southern California.  He graduated with honors from Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, with a degree in English and American Literature.  He received his law degree from the University of Virginia.  He has practiced law in Oregon, as a member of good standing in the Oregon State Bar, for almost fourty years. He was a prosecutor for many years, and following that practiced as a self-employed lawyer providing consultation and services to individuals, lawyers, municipalities, corporations and nonprofit agencies in employment law, workers compensation, bankruptcy, immigration and all manner of civil litigation. While he continues to maintain a private practice in Salem and Eugene, his principal focus, for the last several years, has been on Municipal Court responsibilities.

Judge Brissenden has focused on creating programs to address the problems of domestic violence and driving under the influence, and the needs of domestic violence victims.  He has served on the Lane County Domestic Violence Council for seventeen years including several years on the Steering Committee.  He was appointed by Attorney General Hardy Myers to the Advisory Committee on Child Abuse Assessment in 1999, and served in that capacity for eight years.  He has been active in the Oregon Municipal Judges Association for seventeen years.