Hillman Looks to Hold on to JoP Seat

Christina Hillman is looking to hold on to her seat as Valley County Justice of the Peace in the upcoming November election. Hillman is running against Christine Gamas in the contested race. Hillman sat down with the Courier to talk about her experience and motivation for staying in office.

Hillman was born in Lewistown, but as she put it, she was raised in Valley County, graduating from Glasgow High School before moving on to Corpus Christi, Tex. Eventually, Hillman settled in Bozeman and began working as a legal assistant for a couple of attorneys, mostly dealing in family law. However, criminal law was more appealing to her, stating "Criminal law just really fascinated me."

Following her experience in Bozeman, she moved back and took up the responsibilities of being a farm wife until her first husband passed on. After his death, she began working for Pete Helland, of Helland Law, as a legal assistant. Hillman would remain working for Helland until she was sworn in as Justice of the Peace nearly four years ago.

As for her experience, Hillman said she worked with Helland on both sides of the legal spectrum with his work as city attorney and as a defense attorney. Still, Hillman admits she has learned a great deal since becoming the JoP. "Not every day was the same as the last," described the justice before adding, "There are always so many interesting things going on." She described one case that dealt with social media harassment and the nuances of making decisions. In that case Hillman said, "I made a ruling that I would rather be overturned on appeal than not do enough." Enough in that case was making a decision that would protect the claimant in the case.

Hillman pointed out that she has not learned the job entirely on her own. "I call a lot of my mentor judges," said Hillman before adding, "If I need to be told I'm wrong then I take it." She also pointed out that she prefers to explain her decision-making process for each ruling.

When prompted to talk about her motivation for keeping the position, Hillman was adamant that experience and understanding of the issues in Valley County are paramount in her job. "You can't possibly know everything off hand," explained Hillman describing the background in case law, Montana Code and legal notes she has to comb through to do her job.

Hillman finished off the interview stating that her guiding principle is the one thing she strives for every time she does her work is consistency.

"Consistency is the biggest thing," stated Hillman, "Cases are unique, but consistency is a large aspect of how I handle things."