Contact Information
NOTE: No document can be "filed" officially with the court by emailing or faxing it to a judge or member of a judge's staff.
Avoid Ex Parte Contact
Judges cannot receive communication from lawyers and self-represented litigants unless that communication is simultaneously provided to all other litigants or their lawyers.
Emailing Judge Demarest Directly
Please do not send emails to Judge Demarest directly. Emails to the judge should be sent to her judicial assistant at
BEN.JED.Scheduling@ojd.state.or.us. Any email sent must clearly show that copies were simultaneously sent to all other litigants or their lawyers or it cannot be read by Judge Demarest.
Faxes Sent to Judge Demarest
You must first contact Judge Demarest’s judicial assistant before sending a fax transmission. Judge Demarest and her judicial assistant do not have a stand-alone fax machine in their office so faxes sent without first contacting the judicial assistant may not be delivered to Judge Demarest. There is a 10 page limit to the length of documents that can be sent by fax.
Judge Demarest’s Biography
Judge Joan E. Demarest was appointed to serve as a Circuit Court Judge in April 2019 by Governor Kate Brown and was subsequently elected to retain that position in November 2020. Her current term expires on January 4, 2027.
Before moving to Corvallis in 1979, Judge Demarest lived in New Jersey, Los Angeles and Chicago. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Smith College in 1993, and her Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1998.
Judge Demarest worked for ten years prosecuting cases for the Benton County District Attorney's Office during and after law school. She then assisted students with civil and criminal legal matters in the Associated Students of Oregon State University's Office of Legal Advising. Then in private practice, she focused on court-appointed and retained criminal defense, family law, juvenile dependency and delinquency cases, and victim advocacy.
Judge Demarest served as Municipal Court Judge for the City of Toledo, and as Municipal Court Judge Pro Tem for both the City of Lebanon and the City of Corvallis.
Judge Demarest is a member of the Oregon State Bar, Oregon Women Lawyers, and has served as President and Vice-President of the Linn-Benton Bar Association. She is a member of the Rotary Club of Greater Corvallis and the Zonta Club of Corvallis. She has served on the Corvallis 509J School Board, and the boards of the Boys and Girls Club of Corvallis, Plain Talk for Kids and the Parenting Success Network.
Judge Demarest spends her spare time volunteering for Stove Team International and the Linn Benton Food Share.