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Reviewed 15 September 2013 E-mail: Administrator@LawSource.com

Oregon Court Decisions

A diagram of the state court system (called a “Court Structure Chart” and including a summary of each court’s jurisdiction) is available on the web site of the National Center for State Courts.

    Additional Resources
    ¶ Summaries of Cases in Oregon Supreme Court and Court of Appeals … [Willamette Univ. Coll. of Law] — For cases from the most recent four years, this service provides daily summaries of cases and news releases published by the Oregon Supreme Court and the Oregon Court of Appeals. A search function is provided. A free e-mail subscription is available (to receive the daily summaries by e-mail).


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Oregon Constitution and Legislation

See also a database of statewide ballot measures maintained by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
  1. Constitution (Or. Const.)
  2. Amendments: 

  3. Bills
    See also the Oregon Legislative Assembly web site.
  4. Oregon Laws and Resolutions (Or. Laws)

    Note: Laws enacted in odd-numbered years are regular-session laws; in even-numbered years are special-session laws.
  5. Initiative Statutes Adopted
  6. Oregon Revised Statutes (Or. Rev. Stat.)
    See also uniform laws.
  7. Additional Resources

    NOTE—The Oregon Legislature convenes in odd-numbered years for regular sessions. Normally there is no legislation in even-numbered years.

    ¶ Ballot Measures … Texts of all measures, both passed and failed. See also links to election results (to determine which measures passed).
        


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Oregon Rules of Procedure and Practice

  1. Rules of Procedure

    See also a page of links to court rules maintained by the Oregon Judicial Department.

  2. Local Court Rules • U.S. Court Rules
    For rules of circuit courts in districts not listed here, see links to supplementary local rules of all circuit courts on the web site of the Oregon Judicial Department.
  3. Rules of Practice • Judicial Rules • Professional Ethics Decisions
  4. Additional Resources

    NOTE—Rules of evidence for Oregon state courts are compiled in the Oregon Evidence Code, which is chapter 40 of the Oregon Revised Statutes, and in chapters 41-through-45. Oregon circuit courts are also governed by uniform trial court rules and supplementary local rules (both are linked above) as well as the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure. The chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court promulgates the uniform trial court rules; each circuit court adopts its own supplementary local rules (with the approval of the chief justice). See an outline showing what rules are applicable in particular Oregon courts.

    ¶ Oregon Court Rules — Interim Amendments … [Oregon Judicial Dep't] — These are rules amendments not yet incorporated into the compiled rules.
    Oregon Code of Judicial Conduct … [Oregon State Bar]


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Oregon Administrative Law Sources

See also a page of links to sources of rules, maintained by the Administrative Codes and Registers Section of the National Association of Secretaries of State.
  1. Regulations
  2. Oregon Administrative Rules (Or. Admin. R.)
  3. Oregon Bulletin (Or. Bull.)
  4. Opinions • Decisions • Orders • Rulings
  5. Oregon Attorney General Opinions (Ops. Or. Atty. Gen.)
  6. Additional Resources


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Oregon Ordinances and Home-Rule Charters

Ordinances are local laws, commonly organized into codes, that have been enacted by municipalities — cities, towns, etc. — and counties. Charters are organic laws (similar in function to a constitution) of those local government entities for which “home rule” is authorized by state law. For local laws not found through the links given here, try the county web sites and municipality web sites at “State and Local Government on the Net” by Piper Resources, or a publisher’s web site:
  • American Legal Publishing Corp.
  • Code Publishing Co.
  • Municipal Code Corp.
  • Quality Code Publishing
  • Sterling Codifiers
    1. Charters
       
      Note that a charter could be included in a collection of ordinances (see below) instead of being separately accessible.
    2. County Ordinances
         
      Click on the button keyed to the name of the county. NOTE: On some web sites, selecting the state is necessary for access to the ordinances link.
    3. Municipal Ordinances
            
      Click on the button keyed to the name of the municipality. NOTE: On some web sites, selecting the state is necessary for access to the ordinances link.
    4. Additional Resources
      ¶ Bay City — Selected Ordinances
      ¶ Waldport — Municipal Code … Scroll down the city’s home page to find links to parts of the municipal code.
      Recommended Procedure for Pursuing a City Charter Amendment: Public Vote on Annexations … [Oregon Communities for a Voice in Annexations] — This information is provided by an organization whose “mission is to promote and protect citizen involvement in land-use issues.”


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    Oregon Law-Related Periodicals

    Periodicals providing on-line articles are linked here. See also links to all Oregon law-review web sites as well as links to web sites of all U.S.-published law reviews and periodicals.

    1. Lewis & Clark Law Review (Lewis & Clark L. Rev.) … Formerly titled Journal of Small & Emerging Business Law (until 2004).
    2. Oregon Law Review (Or. L. Rev.)


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    Other Oregon Commentary

    1. Media Handbook on Oregon Law and Court System … [Open Oregon] — This handbook is also available in a PDF file, MEDIA-GUIDE.PDF (442KB).

    2. A Quick Reference Guide to Oregon’s Public Meetings Law … [Open Oregon]

    3. A Quick Reference Guide to Oregon’s Public Records Law … [Open Oregon]

    4. Youth Faces the Law: A Juvenile Rights Handbook … [Multnomah Bar Ass’n, Young Lawyers Section]

    5. A Lawyer’s Guide to Doing Business in Oregon. Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. … [Lex Mundi]


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    Oregon Law-Related Topical Web Sites



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    Oregon Court Information

    Oregon has 36 counties organized into 27 judicial districts with circuit courts. Each county has a circuit court, which is the court of general jurisdiction. See also links to state court web sites, maintained by the National Center for State Courts. Additionally, the Ballotpedia.org web site presents information about courts and judges in the state, covering both state courts and federal courts, in a Wikipedia-style format.
    1. Web Sites

      See also (1) a state map showing counties and judicial districts and (2) a page with links to circuit court web sites (JavaScript must be enabled) maintained by the Oregon Judicial Department: find “Circuit Court Websites” at lower left on the page.


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    Oregon Forms

    1. Court Forms

      Forms for a judicial district not listed here might be available on the court’s web site (if any) linked above.
    2. Revenue Department — Tax Forms

    3. Business Entity Forms …[Paracorp, Inc. (Cal.)] — Convenient interface to view and print in-blank official state forms (in PDF files) for filing by business entities. A JavaScript-enabled browser is required.


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    Other Oregon Resources

    1. Government-Related Web Sites

      See also the on-line version of the Oregon Bluebook (the official state directory) and the Piper Resources list of sites.
    2. Additional Resources
      ¶ Vital Records — Contact Information … [Elizabeth Orsay (Ind.)]
      ¶ Workers’ Compensation — Agency Contact Information … [Robert W. McDowell / N.C. Indus. Comm’n]

    3. Bar Associations • Law-Related Organizations

      The State Bar maintains contact information for local and specialty bar associations. See the National Federation of Paralegal Associations for links to websites of member organizations.
    4. Law Schools • Admission to Practice • Continuing Legal Education
    5. Consulate General of Canada in Seattle … Canadian consular services for Oregon residents.

    6. Consulate General of Mexico in Portland • Consulado General de México en Portland


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    Legal Research and Assistance

    1. Law Libraries

      See also links to web sites of public law libraries and catalogs of academic law libraries, maintained by the library at Washburn University School of Law; and the LibrarySites.Info database of library web sites (“Libcat”).
    2. TEL-LAW Script Topics 

      [Oregon State Bar] — These are links to the text contents of scripts for TEL-LAW, which is a collection of recorded messages written by Oregon lawyers on a variety of legal topics. “All you have to do is call the TEL-LAW number — 620-3000 from the Portland area, or 1-800-452-4776 from anywhere in Oregon. You can call TEL-LAW 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A touch tone phone will allow you direct access to the TEL-LAW system. If you have a rotary or pulse phone, you must call between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays, and a TEL-LAW operator will assist you.”
    3. Oregon State Bar Pamphlets and Information
    4. Bankruptcy Law and Procedures for Oregon Residents … [Calicchia & Kinast LLP (Ohio)] — This web site, presented by a Cleveland bankruptcy law firm, covers basic information about the bankruptcy process, describes debt consolidation and credit counseling as alternatives to bankruptcy, lists the property that an individual is allowed to keep (with citations to governing provisions of Oregon law), and gives information about the bankruptcy courts and how to contact bankruptcy attorneys in Oregon.

    5. Low-Cost Legal Aid … See also the web site for LawHelp.org and the web site for SelfHelpSupport.org.
      1. Oregon Legal Help for the Poor … [Am. Bar Ass’n] — Contact information for statewide and local legal-aid programs, from the ABA’s Directory of Pro Bono Programs. The ABA also provides a page of links to pro bono programs’ web sites.
      2. WomensLaw.org — Sources of Legal Help … [WomensLaw.org (N.Y.)] — Sources of legal help (not limited to legal help for women) include statewide domestic-violence resources, local domestic-violence resources listed by city or town, free or low-cost legal services, and lawyer referral services.

     

     


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