Oregon Legal Research Blog
One day I’m going to blog about the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of legal research, though I’ll put it more in terms of the Expensive, the Impossible, and the Obscure. For now, I’ll limit myself to writing about The Boring, but Necessary: Court Rules (which have nothing to do with the popular saying, “Librarians Rule” 🙂
Court Rules run the gamut from the statewide Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure and Uniform Trial Court Rules and more, all of which you can find at the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD) website, under Court Rules.
There are also local court rules, which include the Supplementary Local Rules (SLRs) and General Orders. The SLRs can be found at your Circuit Court’s website.
General Orders (GOs) are harder to find – they are also, like SLRs, specific to a particular court. Lawyers and litigants can ask to see them in their Circuit Court Administrator’s office and possibly in the Courthouse file room or clerk’s offices. Some of the Circuit Courts are starting to put GOs up on their websites. (We have a PDF collection of GOs back to the 1970’s – thank to our Washington County Circuit Court Administrator!)
Justice Court rules are another matter entirely: “Justice court is held by a justice of the peace within the district for which he or she is elected. The county commissioners have power to establish justice court district boundaries. The justice of the peace is a remnant of territorial days when each precinct of the state was entitled to a justice court. Thirty justice courts currently administer justice in 19 counties….” There is a guide to county and municipal courts and judges in Oregon.