Showing 19 of 19 Results

State of Oregon Law Library Legal Research Blog

06/15/2022
Amanda Duke

 

The Oregon State Bar, through a grant from the Professional Liability Fund, is making the BarBooks available online to all library patrons for the first time. The BarBooks is a library of treatises that are published by the Oregon State Bar. These books are aimed at lawyers, but they are also a valuable resource for those who are representing themselves. Most of these books include sample legal forms that are specific to the Oregon courts and law.  

For the general public, you will need to contact SOLL staff (during library operating hours) and request a digital token. Once you have been given the token, follow these instructions. This token must be used within 30 minutes or it expires. Once activated, your token will remain validated as long as you are actively searching and your browser stays open. You may request additional tokens as needed.

For state agency patrons who are not lawyers, you will be able to create your own non-member account (you must use a state agency issued email address in order for the system to recognize you). Instructions for creating an account are also found on our website.

The Oregon State Bar has tips on how to navigate BarBooks, including searching, printing and downloading. 

04/21/2021
Georgia Armitage

Image: Mt. Hood from Lost Lake. 1900. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mitchell and Nancy Steir. 

April 22, 2021, is the 51st anniversary of Earth Day. Earth Day is a chance for us to learn more about our environment and the threats facing it. To mark the day, we have complied a selection of environmental law resources and a brief history of environmental policy in Oregon.  

Environmental Policy in Oregon

Oregon enacted its first pollution laws in 1889. The laws established drainage rules and animal carcass disposal rules. For the next forty years, Oregon passed a variety of piecemeal laws to prevent water pollution. They were ineffective. According to the Department of Environmental Quality's (DEQ) history, the 180 mile "Willamette River had become so polluted that during low stream flows, it resembled an open sewer.” 

Image: Willamette River, Portland, Oregon. 1901 Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mitchell and Nancy Steir. 

Frustrated with the state of the Willamette River, Oregonians voted for the "Water Purification and Prevention of Pollution Bill" in 1938. The law also created the State Sanitary Authority. In 1951, Oregon passed an air pollution control law and created the Air Pollution Authority. These laws made Oregon an environmental leader. According to the DEQ's history, the water control bill was "one of the first state comprehensive water pollution control laws in the nation."  Similarly, Dr. Arthur C. Stern -- writing for the Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association -- noted that the air pollution control law was the first in the country to control air pollution at the state level. Other states only allowed control at the county level or created city-focused regulations. 

Environmental awareness swept the country in the 1960s. The book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson highlighted the dangers of pesticides. In 1969, 2 environmental disasters – the Cuyahoga River Fire in Ohio and the Santa Barbara Oil Spill in California– drove Congress to establish the Environmental Protection Agency and pass Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.  

In Oregon, the legislative assembly created the DEQ in 1969. It replaced the State Sanitary Authority (and the Air Pollution Authority which the State Sanitary Authority absorbed in 1959).  During this time, Oregon passed the 1967 Beach BillGovernor Thomas McCall’s successful effort to make all Oregon beaches public – and the Bottle Bill (1972) – the first law in the country establishing deposits for bottles. In 1973, the Land Conservation and Development Commission was created to regulate land use. 

More recent environmental legislation in Oregon includes an environmental justice law that took effect in 2008. According to the EPA, minorities and low-income communities “are more likely to be impacted by environmental hazards and more likely to live near contaminated lands.” Oregon’s law established an environmental justice task force, as well as requirements to increase engagement and communication between natural resource agencies and communities impacted by their policies.

In the last few years, Oregon enacted the Single Use Bag-Ban and Oregon Environmental Protection Act in 2019. The Oregon legislature passed the Environmental Protection Act, because of increasingly lax federal environmental protections. The act made earlier and stricter federal environmental protections Oregon law.

Image Credit: Rooster Rock, Columbia River, Oregon. 1900. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mitchell and Nancy Steir. 

Today, Oregon is the 6th greenest state in the country according to a 2021 WalletHub report. The report ranked Oregon so highly, because of the state's environmental quality and eco-friendly behaviors. 

To learn more about environmental law and policy, dig into the library's resources listed below. To find bills before the current legislature search this database by subject or keyword. 

Resources

Databases (Limited to State Employees):

Lexis Advance -- Environmental Law

WestLaw -- Energy and Environment

HeinOnline -- Environmental Law and Conservation Journals (including Lewis & Clark and University of Oregon). Browse subjects to find them. 

Oregon Resources: 

Environmental Law Volume 1: Regulation and Permitting edited by Ms. Laura Maffei et. al. (2013).

Environmental and Natural Resources Law edited by Mr. Jas Jeffrey Adams et. al. (2002 edition with 2006 supplement).      

Water rights in Oregon: an introduction to Oregon's water laws (2018).

General Resources: 

Climate change and indigenous peoples: a synthesis of current impacts and experiences by Kathryn Norton-Smith et. al. (2016).

Endangered and other protected species by Richard Littell (1992) 

Environmental law in a nutshell by Daniel A. Farber (2014) 

Treatise on environmental law by Frank P. Grad (1973). 

Water law in a nutshell by David H. Getches (2009). 

Waters and water rights edited by Robert E. Beck and Amy K. Kelley (2009) 

Wildlife law, regulation, and falconry: an analysis of legal principles by William J. Murrin & Harold M. Webster, Jr., J.D (2013) 

Need more specific materials? Browse the catalog! 

If you are looking for a more specific topic, try browsing the catalog. Browsing the catalog is like browsing the bookshelves. The browse portion of the catalog is organized by subject – search for the subject you’re interested in, say environmental law, and click on it to see a list of relevant resources. 

Bibliography

Boissoneault, Lorraine. “The Cuyahoga River Caught Fire at Least a Dozen Times, but No One Cared Until 1969.” Smithsonian Magazine, June 19, 2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/cuyahoga-river-caught-fire-least-dozen-times-no-one-cared-until-1969-180972444/

Department of Environmental Quality. “Oregon’s 2008 environmental justice law.” Department of Environmental Quality, last accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.oregon.gov/deq/Pages/index.aspx

Department of Environmental Quality. “Oregon's Evolving Bottle Bill.” Department of Environmental Quality, last accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.oregon.gov/deq/Pages/index.aspx. 

Department of Environmental Quality. “Single-Use Bag Ban.” Department of Environmental Quality, last accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.oregon.gov/deq/Pages/index.aspx. 

Department of Land Conservation and Development, Oregon Coastal Management Program. “Public Access to the Coast.” Oregon Coastal Management Program, last accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.oregon.gov/lcd/OCMP/Pages/index.aspx. 

Governor Kate Brown. “Oregon Environmental Protection Act - HB 2250 Bill Signing,” last accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/index.aspx. 

Hamilton, Jon. “How California's Worst Oil Spill Turned Beaches Black And The Nation Green.” NPR, January 28, 2019. https://www.npr.org/. 

Hillegas-Elting, James V. “Department of Environmental Quality.” Oregon Encyclopedia, Oregon Historical Society, last modified May 28, 2019. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/. 

Howe, Deborah. “Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC).” Oregon Encyclopedia, Oregon Historical Society, last modified March 17, 2018. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/

Kiernan, John S, editor. "2021’s Greenest States." WalletHub, Evolution Finance, last modified April 14, 2021. https://wallethub.com

Office of the Secretary of State. Archives Division. Department of Environmental Quality Administrative Overview. Oregon Secretary of State, last modified November 2009. http://records.sos.state.or.us/ORSOSWebDrawer/Search. 

Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Laws 2007, Chapter 909. Oregon State Legislature. Last accessed April 19, 2020. https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/

Oregon State Legislature. Oregon Laws 2019, Chapter 138. Oregon State Legislature. Last accessed April 19, 2020. https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/

Robbins, William G. “Willamette River.” Oregon Encyclopedia, Oregon Historical Society, last modified January 20, 2021. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/.  

Stern, Arthur C. “History of Air Pollution Legislation in the United States.” Journal of the Air Pollution Control Association 32, no. 1 (1982): 44-61. Taylor and Francis. doi: 10.1080/00022470.1982.10465369.  

“The Story of Silent Spring.” NRDC, last modified August 13, 2015. https://www.nrdc.org

United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Earth Day.” United States Environmental Protection Agency, last accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.epa.gov/

United States Environmental Protection Agency. EPA Annual Environmental Justice Progress Report FY 2020. United States Environmental Protection Agency. Last accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.epa.gov/. 

United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Evolution of the Clean Air Act.” United States Environmental Protection Agency, last accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.epa.gov/

United States Environmental Protection Agency. “History of the Clean Water Act.” United States Environmental Protection Agency, last accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.epa.gov/

United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Origins of the EPA.” United States Environmental Protection Agency, last accessed April 19, 2021. https://www.epa.gov/.  

Walth, Brent. “Thomas William Lawson McCall (1913-1983).” Oregon Encyclopedia, Oregon Historical Society, last modified January 22, 2021. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/

07/10/2020
profile-icon Lynne Palombo

The Publications Program within the State of Oregon Law Library publishes and distributes decisions, or opinions, of the Oregon Supreme Court, Oregon Court of Appeals, and the Oregon Tax Court as mandated in the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS 2.150).  

Written opinions of appellate courts are reported, or published, in court reports. The Oregon Reports have been published continuously since 1862 (with opinions dating back to 1853 when Oregon was still a territory). 1962 saw the establishment of the Oregon Tax Court and the first issuance of the Oregon Tax Reports.  The Oregon Court of Appeals and the first issue of the Oregon Reports - Court of Appeals began in 1969.

Preparing for print

Copies of opinions appear first as “slip opinions” which are copies of the original filed in the clerk’s office.  Slip opinions are then published in “advance sheets.” The Advance Sheets (AS) is a soft-cover publication, published every two weeks, that includes opinions in a preliminary format, paginated such that citing is possible. The AS will go on to be published in permanent bound volumes (the Reports) and include additional material, such as orders regarding rules and tables listing cases pending review by the Supreme Court.   

The size of each Oregon Reports volume is determined by the number of pages.  It takes about 2 months for the Court of Appeals and 6 for the Supreme Court to accumulate enough material to close out a volume. The Publications staff then prepares the master for printing, which includes: final formatting and proofing, insertion of citations that might not have been available when the opinions originally issued, updating of case histories as they progress through the appeals process, creation and formatting of tables.  This process takes approximately 4 months to complete. The final product is then transmitted to an outside vendor who prints, binds, and ships the volumes, which takes about another 2 months. 

Digital collection

Until an opinion is published in a bound volume, it is listed on the Publications website with a link to the AS-version in the State of Oregon Law Library (SOLL) digital collection: 

When a new bound volume becomes available, the links to the AS-version opinions for that volume are deleted from the Publications website, the AS-version opinions are replaced by final versions and are accessible by visiting the SOLL digital collection.  All opinions published online have been formatted per OJD policies designed to address confidentiality and privacy laws. The digital collection dates back to January 1998, when the Judicial Department began publishing opinions on the internet.

Purchase Bound Volumes

Bound volumes have always been and still remain available for purchase. Preorder upcoming volumes to avoid shipping fees! (301 Or App is available for preorder through July 23, 2020)

History 

Read Justice Balmer's essay on the origin of the Oregon Reports and their insight into the legal documents of Oregon's history.

Balmer, Thomas A. "The Oregon Reports, 1862-1900: A Brief History." Oregon Appellate Almanac, 2006. 

--Pat Zollner, Mary Yunker, and Lynne Palombo

04/07/2020
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

Have you ever run a search, again and again, to see if the case law or statutory text you are relying on has changed? Westlaw has a feature that can help.

Westlaw’s Notifications can alert you when new case opinions are released, a statute changes, and more. If you can search for it in Westlaw you can set up a notification for it.

The first thing to do is to click the notifications button in Westlaw. It’ll be empty for now since you haven’t set up any notifications. To get started setting up a notification click “View All”

 

In the main notifications screen, you can select “Create an Alert." You can start an alert based on a key number, a cited law or case, an open docket, or a West published book.

 

Once you’ve started an alert Westlaw will guide you through the process of setting up your alert. You’ll be able to set the content you want to be monitored and how you should be alerted to changes.

 

You can also quickly create an alert from any Westlaw search. Just look for the bell icon in a search result screen. You’ll be sent to the above WestClip Alert screen with the options already set up according to your search. You can modify it or set it up as is.

 

With Westlaw’s help you’ll never be surprised by a new precedent or statuary change again!

01/24/2020
profile-icon Lynne Palombo

The printed 2019 Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) have arrived and are available for in-library use.

The Office of the Legislative Counsel prepares and publishes the multi-volume set every two years after each biennial legislative session. Each edition incorporates all laws enacted by the Legislative Assembly through the year referenced in the title for that edition. The statutes are also available online on the Oregon Legislature website.

05/10/2019
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

 

Oregon’s administrative rules are an important part of the rules and laws that govern Oregon. These rules range from the Criminal Justice Commission’s (Chapter 213) sentencing rules to the Department of Environmental Quality’s (Chapter 340) hazardous waste management rules.

As an Oregonian these rules affect your everyday life. You can research them and even contribute to their creation using online tools and local library resources.

Research Rulemaking Rules and Procedures

Agencies rely on public input to craft effective rules. If you are interested in a pending rule you can research the rule and file official comments with the agency.

Oregon's Administrative Procedures Act sets out the rules and procedures agencies need to follow to promulgate an administrative rule.

The Oregon Department of Justice has useful resources and forms available for people interested in contributing to Oregon administrative rules. The following publications are particularly helpful.

·         Attorney General’s Administrative Law Manual (PDF) – This manual covers the process of rulemaking and appeals in exhaustive detail.

·         Code of Conduct for Non-Attorney Representatives at Administrative Hearings (PDF) – A short list of what is expected from all parties when a non-attorney is involved in the rulemaking process.

 

Researching Rules and Rulemaking Documents

The Oregon Secretary of State organizes and coordinates existing rules and the rulemaking process for Oregon agencies. They have a lot of information about the process of their website:

 

Where to go and how to participate in Oregon Administrative Rulemaking

Oregon Transparency collects information about Oregon state government public meetings. This is a great way to find meeting where public comments on pending rules are being accepted.

Each state agency is responsible for setting up it’s own process for promulgating and receiving public comments on it’s administrative rules. Agency websites will often have useful information about their procedures and ways to participate in the their rulemaking:

08/06/2018
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

 

Oregon has a local public law library in just about every county in the state. These libraries are ready to help you research your legal questions. You can find a full list of these libraries with their hours and contact information on the website of the Oregon Council of County Law Libraries.

In these law libraries, you will find legal research materials that will help you answer your legal questions. These can include everything from reference books to advanced online databases and law librarians to help. 

Next time you have a legal question give your local law library a try!

11/17/2017
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

A lot of legal research takes place online through online legal databases like Westlaw or records repositories like PACER. A good legal researcher knows that the privacy of their legal research is important. There are many incentives for unscrupulous  actors to spy on your computer use, especially when conducting legal research.

Computer security is therefore a VITAL part of good legal research practices. Luckily for us security amateurs there are some good resources out there that can get us oriented to good computer security. Below are two up to date, reliable and free online books for learning about computer security from physical access to network attacks.

06/02/2017
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

As a non-lawyer it can be difficult to get reliable answers about everyday legal problems. Can my landlord really evict me for that? How long do I have to pay child support? What happens at a SSI hearing?

The Oregon Legal Aid community is here to help! They have prepared a number of useful booklets on legal topics. These up to date booklets are a excellent first stop when researching legal problems. 

You can download the PDF books for free from OregonLawHelp.org

05/01/2017
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

Happy May Day Oregonians! Today's holiday commemorates the Haymarket Affair and celebrates the Labor Movement

Oregon was the first state to recognize Labor Day and our state's Bureau of Labor and Industries continues to work to protect Oregon's workers. 

Chief among the rights workers have fought for is the right to organize to improve wages and working conditions. This right is protected nationally with the help of the National Labor Relations Board

The NLRB fulfills this mission primarily by hearing and ruling on complaints of unfair labor practices. The organization is lead by a board of presidential appointees that are confirmed by the Senate

The NLRB produces official opinions in addition to unoffical opinions, memorandums and investigation reports. You can search these reports easily on the NLRB's website

Thank you Oregon Workers! SOLL appreciates your work and wishes you a happy May Day! 

04/03/2017
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

It's April again in Oregon! This means beautiful flowers, better weather every day and your yearly obligation to financially support the state. Filing a tax return is a minor chore for most but sometimes you run into a problem and need extra help. The IRS has a HUGE number of publications and help resources online that can often resolve your confusion with a little light research! 

This help starts with a comprehensive help page. This page covers a lot of topics from tax relief for disaster victims to what to do if you suspect tax fraud. 

You can also get full fledged publications and forms. This includes the vast array of normal tax forms. It also includes publications that explain everything from Medical and Dental Expenses (Publ 501) to depreciating property (Publ 946)

Go get em taxpayers! And thanks for supporting Oregon and the United States! 

02/10/2017
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

The Oregon Department of Justice is charged with creating a number of manuals for use by state and local government in Oregon. These manuals are useful guides to the internal workings of Oregon's agencies and units of government. You can purchase these manuals from the ODOJ's website

This site is especially useful if you are interested in obtaining public records in Oregon. The AG's Public Records and Meeting's Manual is available for free. It goes over the process of requesting records step by step. The book even includes samples and forms. 

If you're planning on putting in a public records request in Oregon the Public Records and Meeting's Manual is a good place to start.

01/30/2017
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

The recent executive order banning immigration from 7 countries has drawn challenges from the blocked entrants and their supporters. Legal representatives have rushed to airports across the country to offer representation to the stranded travelers

The State of Oregon Law Library has a number of books that cover immigration law. Our books cover all levels of expertise. The NOLO book Immigration Made Easy is aimed at non-lawyers with no experience. We also have more sophisticated books such as Steel on Immigration and Frangoman on Immigration Fundamentals

Our book Removal Defense is a practice manual like Oregon's own Bar Books. It gives practical advice to the immigration practitioner. While we only have this one volume the Immigrant Legal Resource Center publishes a number of useful immigration law practice manuals

There are also a number of resources on the web for researching immigration law. The Georgetown Law School immigration guide is a good start to finding these resources.

11/18/2016
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

If you've worked with U.S. immigration cases you may have run across a citation that looks like this:

17 I & N Dec. 450

This citation refers to the Immigration and Naturalizations Decisions reporter. This reporter collects the Attorney General and Board of Immigration Appeals decisions. These are the appeals opinions generated inside the the Executive Office for Immigration Review.

The Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) is the the agency within the the Department of Justice that adjudicates immigration cases. This means it conducts immigration court proceedings appellate review and administrative hearings. If you have applied for citizenship or residency your case will be adjudicated by this agency. 

The EOIR website has this reporter's cases available for download starting in 1958 with volume 8. You can also browse the decisions by topic in a index that covers volumes 21 and forward. Additionally the website has copies of the Immigration Court Practice Manual and Board of Immigration Appeals Practice Manual available. 

So if you have a immigration law question the website of the EOIR should be one of your first stops! 

Happy researching Oregonians! 

11/07/2016
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman
What is LexisAdvance's new graphical search?

The graphical search is a new way Lexis displays certain search results. A bar with colored stripes displays the position of the different search terms entered by the user. You can click on the bar to quickly go to the section of the document. Once there each search term is hi-lighted with it's own color.

 

How can I use the graphical search?

If you want to search using the new graphical interface you are in luck! The new search mode is turned on by default. You can click on the title of this section to learn more about to use the new interface. 

 

How can I turn of graphical search as the default display?

The new search interface may not be for you. In this case you may want to turn it off and return to the old way of displaying documents. It is a easy process.

  • Click on the More tab at the top of the page. Then click on the Settings link in the menu.

  • In the settings menu un-select the radial box next to the graphical view icon.

09/22/2016
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

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

                                             

09/05/2016
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

Happy Labor Day Oregon!

Oregon has a long history of recognizing labor and its struggle to organize. On February 21st 1887 Oregon became the first state to recognize Labor Day as a state holiday.

The State of Oregon continues to work to assist working Oregonians. The Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) is the agency in Oregon charged with protecting workers and workers’ rights.  

The Wage and Hour Division  is the part of BOLI that enforces laws covering minimum wage and disputes over payment of wages.  If you think you are being underpaid or cheated of wages you have earned the Wage and Hour Division can help.

The Civil Rights Division is the part of BOLI that protects Oregonians from unlawful discrimination. This division covers employment discrimination, housing and public accommodation discrimination. If you think you’ve been discriminated against check out the information about filing a complaint.

BOLI has been working to protect Oregon’s workers since 1903. Read about BOLI’s long and proud history in their anniversary book.

BOLI conducts a large number of hearings as a part of its administration of Oregon’s labor laws.  The final orders of the agency are collected in the BOLI Orders  volumes. You can review all these orders online. They are a great way to research your own labor or discrimination question. BOLI also prepares a digest that organized many of the orders by subject. Use this digest to pin down the order you’re looking for!

Enjoy the fine weather this weekend fellow Oregonians but remember the workers who’ve made Oregon great!

08/25/2016
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

Any legal researcher who uses LexisAdvance will be familiar with Lexis' search bar.

We're ready to get cracking on our legal research.

NOT SO FAST! 

Generally a search entered into this bar is processed as a 'Natural Language' search. This means that Lexis will use a algorithm to analyze your search terms and assign weights to different words or phrases when assembling results. A disadvantage of this system is that these weights are opaque to the user. Natural Language searching introduces uncertainty into searches that is unacceptable to many researchers. For example in a natural language search Lexis ignores the following words. 

This problem explains the persistence of terms and connectors search modes in Westlaw and LexisAdvance. There are three ways to switch to terms and connectors

1. Using the advanced search dialog.

2. Using any connector symbol

 

3. After you run a search you can use the ‘Actions’ menu to switch between modes

 

 

08/15/2016
profile-icon Lewis Zimmerman

A common research topic for astute legal practitioners is current legislation. The Oregon Revised Statutes only come out every other year and savvy lawyers keep a weather eye on new bills coming up as well as recently passed legislation.

As the election season rolls on it's also important for voters of all kinds to get information on legislation that passed and bills that didn't. The well informed voter will want to know how their legislature voted on last session's controversial bill even if it never became law.

SOLL has a number of official print resources that cover these laws and bills. You can look up legislation in the Oregon Laws and review votes in the Senate and House Journals. However these books, though they cover every act of the state legislature since Oregon's time as a territory, can be difficult and inconvenient to use. It is often essential for the researcher to look to Oregon's online resources.

The Oregon Legislature maintains the Oregon Legislative Information System (OLIS). This system contains bills and laws from the Oregon legislature going back to 2007. It is a rich source of information, especially in more recent sessions. You can find recordings of floor and committee sessions, committee reports and vote counts. However this system can also be hard to search. In particular searches by legislature are difficult.

A excellent free source for this kind of information is the Sunlight Foundation's website OpenStates. This website is a flexible and useful resource to research the actions of the legislature in Oregon, and around the country. You can find your legislature and see how she voted recently. You can also find various recent bills and laws and check the votes for them and read the text of the bills. Combined with the detail of OLIS these form a powerful tool to research your legislature this election season! 

EXCELSIOR Oregon!

SOLLOJD
About Us | hours 8 a.m. - 4:45 p.m. M-F | map | 1163 State Street, Salem, OR 97301 | email | 503-986-5640