At the time of his nomination to the federal bench by President Clinton in 1993, he was serving as an Oregon circuit court judge.

He graduated from the University of Oregon with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1967, and after service in the United States Marine Corps from 1967 to 1970, entered University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, earning a Juris Doctor in 1973.

Haggerty was a law clerk for the metropolitan public defender in Portland, Oregon in 1973.

[3] He took senior status on August 26, 2009, and took inactive senior status at the end of 2014, meaning that he remains a member of the court, but no longer hears cases or participates in court business.

[4] Haggerty was the presiding judge in the trial of White Aryan Resistance (WAR) founder and leader, Tom Metzger, over his involvement in the 1988 murder of Mulugeta Seraw by skinhead members of Portland's East Side White Pride.