Use Casemaker to Check Case Law Validity
Casemaker’s exclusive "casecheck" feature allows users to determine a case has been challenged by a later court. To access casecheck, look on the right-hand side of the screen of the case you are viewing. If there are no hyperlinks underneath the casecheck logo, it means that no action has been taken on the case by a later court. The existence of hyperlinks does not necessarily mean that there have been any rulings against the case in question. Click on the link to find out.

Clicking the hyperlink takes the user directly to the portion of the later case where the older case is cited. By reading the text surrounding the case citation, one can quickly determine later treatment of the cited case.

Citators may or may not address the finer point that a user would need to have in order to accurately determine the status of a case. And there is no guarantee that the citator determination was actually written by a lawyer. In contrast, by allowing Casemaker users to view the specific area of the later case, legal professionals can read the decision and make their own determination of the value of the case in question.

20th Annual Recovery Dinner Set for April 18
The Oregon Attorney Assistance Program will host the 20th Annual Recovery Dinner on Friday, April 18, 2008. The dinner will be held at the downtown Portland Embassy Suites Hotel and will go from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Reservations are required and need to be turned in with payment by Tuesday, April 15. For more information and for reservation forms, visit the OAAP website at http://www.oaap.org/index.asp?page=news.

8th Annual Race for Justice Scheduled for June 21
Save the date: St. Andrew Legal Clinic’s 8th Annual Race for Justice has been set for Saturday, June 21, 2008. This 5K run/walk and kids’ fun run will start and finish at the Madeleine Parish in Northeast Portland.

More than 350 participants from the legal community are expected to compete in a variety of events. Largest Team and Best Fundraising Team prizes will be awarded. Festivities begin at 9 a.m. For early registration and event information, visit www.salcgroup.org.

Proceeds benefit St. Andrew Legal Clinic, a community-based non-profit organization that provides quality legal services, in the area of family law, to low-income individuals and families who might not otherwise have access to them.

Oregon Court of Appeals
Inaugurates Appellate Commissioner
On March 5, 2008, Chief Judge David Brewer of the Oregon Court of Appeals signed orders creating an appellate commissioner program in the Court of Appeals and appointing Jim Nass to serve as the court’s first commissioner. Nass was sworn in and began serving as appellate commissioner immediately.

The position is modeled on commissioner positions found in the State of Washington appellate courts, except that the Oregon appellate commissioner will not decide cases on their merits. The commissioner will have authority to decide a variety of procedural matters raised by motion in cases in the Court of Appeals. Parties to matters decided by the commissioner will have the opportunity to have those decisions reconsidered by the chief judge or by the motions department of the Court of Appeals.

Nass has worked for the Oregon appellate courts since June 1983, serving as appellate legal counsel for the Oregon Supreme Court and Oregon Court of Appeals. In that capacity, he has served as media spokesperson for the Oregon appellate courts and as a member of the State Court Administrator’s legislative team. Since May 2007, he also has served as acting director of the appellate court services division, which provides support services to the appellate courts.

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