Oregon Appellate Arguments - Week of February 9th

Oregon Supreme Courts

No arguments scheduled

 

Oregon Court of Appeals

2/10/2015 – 2/12/2015 Arguments

Beyond Opinions: Obtaining Documents from the Oregon Appellate Courts

Appellate court documents, other than published opinions, are often difficult to obtain. Traditional databases either do not contain these documents or put them behind a additional and expensive paywall. Despite these obstacles a brief or court order can provide important insights.

The State of Oregon Law Library has an ongoing process to digitize our collection of Oregon appellate briefs. However, our online database is not yet comprehensive. We also excludes some cases with sensitive information. You can access our Database here:

The Oregon Judicial Department Appellate Records Section maintains a comprehensive collection of all the records of both the Oregon Supreme Court and the Oregon Court of Appeals. This includes civil and criminal cases, lawyer and judicial disciplinary cases, Oregon Tax Court cases, cases of original Supreme Court jurisdiction, ballot measure titles, and judicial review of most state administrative actions.

The records in all these cases may be requested directly from the Appellate Records Section with the following form. Also attached below is the price schedule for delivery of documents. The digital delivery of the documents via the internet is especially reasonable at 3.00$ per document. You can download a PDF of these documents here.

As always if you need help requesting court documents or identifying the documents you need do not hesitate to contact us at the State of Oregon Law Library.

BOLI Orders: Finding the final orders issued by the Commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries

        In 1995 the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries began publishing a red softbound volume of final orders issued by the commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries. These orders deal with the many fact situations and administrative rules covered by the Bureau. These volumes collect all the orders available from 1972 onwards. Since the bureau started contested hearings in 1972 this contains all the available hearings.  We have a complete collection of these volumes here at the SOLL 

 

        The print publication of these small red volumes ceased in 2009 with the cases running through September 19^th 2009. However, the BOLI volume is still published online here:

 

• http://www.oregon.gov/boli/Pages/BOLI_Final_Orders.aspx 
  

 

Searching BOLI is also easier than ever. If you know the party you are looking for you can browse the table of cases here:

 

• http://www.oregon.gov/boli/Legal/TABLE_OF_BOLI_FINAL_ORDERS_for_BOLI_Orders_vols._1-33.pdf 
  

 

There is also a subject digest that covers the entire collection of BOLI orders. They are split into three sections but are available here:

 

• http://www.oregon.gov/boli/Pages/Digest_to_BOLI_Final_Orders.aspx

 

The Bureau has also put together a guide to researching BOLI orders here:

 

• http://www.oregon.gov/boli/Pages/Legal_Research_Tips.aspx

 

Remember if you have any trouble locating a document feel free to contact us here at the SOLL

 

Lewis Zimmerman

SOLL Reference Librarian

Measure 91: Recreational Marijuana In Oregon and Around the Country

Oregon measure 91 was approved by the voters on November 4, 2014. Measure 91 “legalizes personal possession of marijuana within specified limits, and provides for a commercial regulatory system of marijuana production, distribution and sale.”

Don't get too excited! The entire measure will slowly go into effect over the next several months. Here are some links to information about the measure and it's implementation in Oregon.

• The Oregon Liquor Control Commission page on recreational marijuana.

  • This page has a lot of good information on the current state of legal recreational marijuana in Oregon. Keep checking back here as the OCLL develops its plans and rules.

• The 2014 Oregon Voter's Guide

  • This guide contains the full text of the measure along with a impartial and brief explanation of the measure and it's intended effect.

Oregon is not the only state to legalize recreational marijuana. You can compare Oregon's laws and implementation with Washington State, Alaska and Colorado. Take a look at those state's pages here.

• Washington State

• Alaska

• Colorado

Finding out what the US federal government thinks of all this is a little more difficult. The US Department of Justice did issue a guidance letter to all US Attorneys in 2013. You can read that letter here.

These are exciting times Oregonians! Meet them with up to date legal information. As always you can visit us at SOLL, go to our webpage, call us at 503-986-5640 or email us at state.law.library@ojd.state.or.us.

Tracking the Legislative History of Oregon State Constitutional Provisions

Many of our readers will be familiar with the annotations to the Oregon Revised Statutes. The note “Amended by 1969 c.179 §1” is familiar to many. It points to Chapter 179 Section 1 of the 1969 Oregon Laws and helps the reader track down the legislative history of the statute in question.

The Oregon Constitution has a similar notation that guides the user seeking the history of a particular constitutional section. The current Oregon Constitution is available on line at the Oregon legislature's website. Each Section of the constitution ends with a note that looks like this:

[Constitution of 1859; Amendment proposed by H.J.R. 11, 1955, and adopted by the people Nov. 6, 1956; Amendment proposed by H.J.R. 27, 1969, and adopted by the people Nov. 3, 1970; Amendment proposed by S.J.R. 17, 2001, and adopted by the people May 21, 2002]

This note, from Article XI Section 6, recounts the history of this section. In this case the section was enacted in the constitution of 1859 and then amended in 1956, 1970 and 2002. The last amendment to Article XI section 6 was proposed in the 17^th Senate Joint Resolution from 2001.

You can find selected resolutions from 1999 on the Oregon Legislature's web page. A box in the lower right corner of the page contains the published resolutions. SJR 17 (2001) is located here. 

It is important to remember that the only resolutions recorded are ones deemed significant by the Oregon Legislative Counsel. If you are looking for a resolution and it is not listed on the legislature’s website you can contact the Oregon State Archives Reference Desk and view the resolution at the State Archives building. Feel free to contact us at the SOLL reference desk if you need help locating a document in the Archives. If you are looking for a resolution that is older than 1999 you can check a paper copy of the Oregon Laws from the appropriate year. The SOLL has a full collection of Oregon Laws available to the public.

Happy researching!

The first known attorney of Chinese descent admitted to practice in Oregon

On July 30 of 1907 the Morning Oregonian reported that a Mr. Seid Gein had been admitted to the bar in Oregon.

Admission to the Oregon Bar and the practice of law was a significant step into Oregon society. Before his admission Mr. Seid was already a respected member of the Portland community. Indeed only a few weeks earlier on July 14th the Oregonian reported that Mr. Sied had left a job with the U.S. immigration service upon being reassigned to St. Lewis. His status was such that A new position was created for him in the Immigration office after he was compelled to resign as interpreter.

At the State of Oregon Law Library we have in our collection two of the orginal Oregon Bar attorney rolls. These books contain the handwritten names of all attorneys admitted respectively from 1844 to 1848 and 1888 to 1974. You can see the line where Mr Seid was admitted on June 17, 1907.

Mr. Sied's stature only grew after his admission to the bar.

The early days of the Oregon bar are filled with firsts and interesting characters. The SOLL contains a wealth of resources to research the early days of the Oregon courts. Attorneys admitted during the year to the Oregon bar were listed in early editions of the Oregon Reporter. Stephen Armitage, a Supreme Court staff attorney, has written an article discussing the bar admission examination from 1865 into the 1900s. This is the same examination Mr. Seid would have undergone in 1907. Our collection includes a number of works dealing with Oregon's legal history including History of the Bench and Bar of Oregon and a collection of the excellent Oregon Historical Quarterly.

Pacer Access Restoration Planned

On August 10^th The Administrative Office of the US Courts abruptly announced that archives of older cases from a number of courts would be removed from PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). After being pressed by the media the AO explained, on August 26th that the removals were prompted by technical incompatibility with recent upgrades to the system.

The furor wasn’t quelled by the delayed explanation. On September 19^th Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, the director of the AO, criticizing the move. The letter, acquired by the Washington Post, read in part:

Wholesale removal of thousands of cases from PACER, particularly from four of our federal courts of appeals, will severely limit access to information not only for legal practitioners, but also for legal scholars, historians, journalists, and private litigants for whom PACER has become the go-to source for most court filings

The PACER records effected and a tentative schedule for the restoration of the documents is available on the PACER website.