Patrick R. McDermott, county court judge of the 5th Judicial District, is retiring effective January 31, 2018, after 20 years on the bench.

In his retirement letter to the Chief Justice and the Governor, Judge McDermott noted, “Words cannot express the honor, joy and satisfaction that come with the opportunity to serve the people of this state as a judge.” He added, “The men and women of the Nebraska judiciary are without equal, and the pride I feel having been numbered among them is the pinnacle of my legal career.”

As his legacy, Judge McDermott leaves the legal community with a variety of legal studies and projects. He was awarded the Distinguished Judge for Improvement of the Judicial System for work with fellow county court judge Curtis Maschman in 2007. Both judges provided leadership on the Supreme Court Automation Advisory Committee where they formed a team to assist in the development and testing of the county judges’ computerized docketing program. Judge McDermott has an extensive background in computer programming through his previous employment as a programmer-analyst, writing systems for NASA and others.

His other committee work includes serving as chair of the Supreme Court Process Re-Engineering Committee and membership on the Supreme Court Language Access Committee. He has served on the Commission on Children in the Courts and is lead judge for the “Through the Eyes of the Child Initiative” in the 5th Judicial District.

After taking the bench in 1998, Judge McDermott was retained in his position by area voters, most recently in 2014.

The first step in replacing Judge McDermott will be for the Judicial Resources Commission to call a meeting to determine whether or not, based on judicial workload statistics, his retirement creates a judicial vacancy on the county court bench of the 5th Judicial District (Boone, Butler, Colfax, Hamilton, Merrick, Nance, Platte, Polk, Saunders, Seward, and York counties).

Resources Commission information: https://supremecourt.nebraska.gov/judicial-resources-commission

Judge McDermott’s judicial biography is found: https://supremecourt.nebraska.gov/hon-patrick-r-mcdermott-0