Opinions of the attorney general can often provide useful insight into tricky legal questions. Oregon’s attorney general regularly issues public opinions. A savvy legal researcher will consult these opinions when their case contains any area where the government may have an interest.

The opinions are divided into two broad categories. The Attorney General’s website describes the two categories:

The opinions fall into two broad categories, formal and informal opinions. Formal opinions are signed by the Attorney General as chief legal officer of the State and typically respond to questions concerning constitutional issues and other matters of statewide concern. Informal opinions are issued on matters less likely to impact those other than the requestor and are signed by the Chief Counsel of the Department of Justice General Counsel Division. The informal opinions can be distinguished from the formal opinions through their designation. Informal opinions appear in the subject index as, for example, 1997-1. Formal opinions appear as, for example, 8246.

Researching Oregon attorney general opinions can be complicated by the diversity of the sources of these opinions and the changes over time in their designations.

The State of Oregon Law Library has a complete print collection of these opinions. In addition to the opinions hosted on the Oregon attorney general webpage a complete set of opinions is available through SOLL’s public Fastcase account.

Formal Opinions

Informal Opinions – Formerly Letters of Advice