OPINION: Why I'm running for the Montana Supreme Court

Our Montana Supreme Court is the last stop for deciding the most important legal questions in Montana. It’s important we get those right — not just for the parties involved in a particular case, but for anyone else, present or future, who will be affected by the precedent that case sets.

That’s why it’s vital our Montana Supreme Court be made up of experts from a breadth of different legal fields — justices with a variety of backgrounds inside and outside of a courtroom.

Most of the justices currently serving on the Supreme Court come from government. And while it’s important to have government expertise on the court, we need to balance that with justices experienced in the legal issues affecting everyday Montanans. That’s the type of experience I want to bring to the court.

I’ve practiced law for 34 years, working with Montana’s small-business owners, farmers, and ranchers to resolve the wide variety of legal problems they regularly face. I brought that practical experience into the classroom as a professor at the University of Montana School of Law, teaching property, business and agricultural law.

 I’m a fourth-generation Montanan raised on my family’s ranch near Conrad. My parents, Rib and Pat Gustafson, taught me the values of hard work, honesty, independence, and common sense.

I understand that Montana’s economic engine is powered by agriculture, main-street businesses and natural-resource production. We need a legal environment in which Montana businesses and families can thrive.

I am committed to legal stability and predictability. The court is not a legislative body; it should rarely announce new rules of law or depart from judicial precedent.

Yet our current court has a reputation for being inconsistent. It reversed itself over 100 times between 1990 and 2000 (Renz, Mont. Law Rev. 2004) and another 73 times the following decade (Natelson, Montana Policy Institute 2012). In 2012 it was reversed twice by the U.S. Supreme Court within a span of a few months.

That type of judicial inconsistency is a big part of the reason why Montana has been ranked in the bottom tier of states for our business legal environment.

The unpredictability in our legal environment has real consequences. It means it’s harder for an entrepreneur to start a business in Montana, more expensive to run one, and more difficult to create jobs.

I don’t come with a political agenda. My objective is to bring consistent and impartial judicial interpretations of the laws adopted by the Legislature so that Montanans can make informed choices in managing their affairs.

Experience matters, and I’m ready to put mine to work.

Juras, of Great Falls, is a candidate for the Montana Supreme Court. She is a professor of law at the University of Montana and a practicing attorney.