In 1905, Oke was appointed Justice of the Peace and Notary Public for the Colony. In February 1909, the Governor in Council appointed Oke to be Stipendiary Magistrate for the Northern District of Newfoundland and Judge of the Harbour Grace District Court in place of Alfred Henry Seymour (1855–1912), who was elected to represent Harbour Grace in the Newfoundland House of Assembly. Given this new position, Oke recused himself as a publisher. Until his death in 1923, Oke served as one of the two District Court judges in Newfoundland; the District Court in Harbour Grace was abolished in 1935. By 1913, Oke was appointed as a Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland, authorized to take affidavits for any cause pending in the Supreme Court and empowered to issue Original or Mesne Process. The Harbour Grace Court House where Judge Oke served is the oldest surviving public building in Newfoundland and one of the National Historic Sites of Canada.
