From the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) website:
“Reminder — Oregon State Courts Closed Friday, March 23 for Mandatory Furlough
Oregon state courts and their offices will be closed Friday, March 23, 2012, because of budget cuts. All statewide court closure dates for 2011-13 legal holidays and mandated furlough days are posted here. Some courts also have limited public access hours to address staff cutbacks.”
Visit the OJD website to read (soon) and view the:
2012 State of the Courts Address by Chief Justice Paul J. De Muniz
The 2011 Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) are now online – yay!
You can find the 2011 ORS online at the Legislature’s website.
“The State of Oregon has a Citizen Legislature consisting of the Senate, whose 30 members are elected to serve four-year terms, and the House of Representatives, which has 60 members elected for two-year terms.
The Legislature convenes annually in February at the State Capitol in Salem, but sessions may not exceed 160 days in odd-numbered years and 35 days in even-numbered years. Five-day extensions are allowed by a two-thirds vote in each house….” [Link to the Oregon Legislature’s website.]
Visit the Oregon Secretary of State’s elections website for general information and links.
Check with your county’s elections office for drop-off instructions:
1) List of all County Election Officials
Check the announcements and updates at the OJD website (and the Media Releases “What’s New” site) for changes to this, but as of right now, here’s the announcement:
“SYSTEM MAINTENANCE: The OJD website will be down Sunday, the 29th, from 5am-4pm.
Due to system maintenance, the OJD website, including OJIN OnLine, OJD Courts ePay, and Appellate eFile, will be unavailable on Sunday, the 29th, from 5am until 4pm.
Measures for the 2012 Oregon Legislative Session are now available. You can link to the Legislature’s homepage for more information.
(Note: As of today, the “index” and the “list of sections affected” links on that page are to the 2011 bills, not the 2012, so don’t get confused. These will all be updated in good time, but pay attention to the dates on the PDFs. For example, if the document is dated August 2011, it will not include the 2012 bills – at least we hope not – some nifty time shifting going on, perhaps?)
See OJD Media Release, dated 1/20/12*
‘The Honorable Thomas A. Balmer has been elected as the 42nd Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, the court announced today. Balmer will succeed Chief Justice Paul J. De Muniz, who will step down as Chief Justice on May 1, 2012 before retiring from the bench in January 2013.
“Chief Justice De Muniz has been an innovative leader and a tireless advocate for open and accessible courts and promoting timely justice for the people who rely on courts to protect their rights and safety,” Balmer said. “I will continue his important initiatives and do everything I can to ensure that Oregonians can rely on their state courts for prompt and impartial decisions in the thousands of cases that come before Oregon judges every day.” …‘ [See OJD Media Release, dated 1/20/12]
Thanks to Oregon Legislative Counsel (and the Oregon Supreme Court and the State of Oregon Law Library) and the Washington County Law Library staff (read about this project in previous Gutbuster blog posts), the superseded ORS editions are appearing online.
Currently, 1953-1967 are at the Oregon Legislature’s website under “Selected Archives of the Oregon Revised Statutes” at the Bills/Laws website.
Very soon you’ll see the 1995 to the present and by the end of the year you’ll see 1969-1993. (That component of the scanning project is also being done by the Washington County Law Library staff as time and money permit. The current goal is to complete the scanning by June 2012, but it is possible that deadline may not be met. But the law library will send the data as it is completed to Legislative Counsel so keep your eyes posted to the Legislature’s website.)
Read the Oregon Secretary of State’s new Oregon Civics Toolkit: Free Lesson Plans Targeting Students 17-24.
Knowledge is power and knowledge of the law is a super-power and we’re never too old to learn something new.
Oregon Legal Research Blog