The Oregon Small Claims Court jurisdictional limit has been raised to $10,000.
You can find this bill (HB 2710 B-engrossed, June 27, 2011) from the Legislature’s Measure Search or Bills website.
Legal minds will differ on this, but my informal tally so far shows that there are an awful lot of consumer-friendly lawyers worrying about this increase in jurisdictional amount from $7,500 to $10,000, without some corresponding court-managed small claims case preparation assistance made available (the way the courts provide family law assistance for self-represented litigants).
Question: WHO uses the Oregon county law libraries and for what purpose(s)?
Answer: Thousands of people use the Oregon county law libraries, because no other publicly accessible library has their specialized legal research resources, including databases, books, and professional law librarians.
More WHO answers: Government attorneys and other employees, metro-area residents, solo and small law firm attorneys who assist clients with limited income, pro se (self-represented) litigants, especially those with family, small estate, debt collection, landlord-tenant, and traffic court questions, middle and high school students, college, law school, and paralegal students, tax professionals, out of state and non-U.S. attorneys and self-represented litigants with legal interests in Oregon, and more all use the public (county) law library.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of chuckling over a coffee and the London Review of Books Personals ads (some also collected in this book, featured in a 2006 NPR story ), here is a Small Claims Court one. Who knew?!
“I was recently victorious in a small claims court and with my compensation cheque I’d like to take you (F to 48) on a weekend bicycling trip to the Lake District Centre Parc. This offer doesn’t include meals or alcoholic beverages. M, 53. box no: 11/01”
Anyone who works within the Small Claims Court world appreciates it, but also knows it has a long way to go to be really (self) helpful. In Oregon, for example, self-help litigants could use:
1) Assistance preparing for Small Claims Court
2) Assistance writing demand letters
3) Assistance or advice also with post-judgment collection procedures
I’ve blogged before about Oregon Small Claims Courts so won’t repeat myself, but read the announcement from HALT:
I haven’t blogged about Oregon Small Claims Court in a little while, and while not much has changed overall, here are a couple of updates:
1) It is very important to keep up with your Small Claims Court rules and procedures. Always read:
a) the Small Claims packet of information the Court gives you or that is on their website,
Some (maybe all?) Oregon courts are offering TurboCourt online document preparation for Small Claims litigants. I haven’t seen TurboCourt in action.
Visit the Washington County (Oregon) Circuit Court website and their TurboCourt link. Or, visit your own county’s Circuit or Justice Court to find out if they too have TurboCourt.
In the future, however, Oregon Judicial Department’s eCourt may be where document filing will take place. Here’s a press release on the rollout, which started in Yamhill County in June.
This question came from a reader who came upon the Oregon Legal Research blog while doing some research.
About Oregon small claims court and damages: Judges and mediators in Oregon small claims courts have a fair amount of discretion when working with plaintiffs and defendants on resolving their disuptes. This discretion includes working with the parties to decide on what damage claims should be honored In the Interest of Justice.
Some things to keep in mind:
Oregon Legal Research Blog