Oregon State Bar Bulletin — JULY 2013
Bar News
House of Delegates Meets July 16-18
The first round of regional meetings for the 2013 House of Delegates will be held July 16-18. For a complete schedule, visit the Leadership section of the OSB website at www.osbar.org/leadership/hod/.
New OSB List Serves Coming Soon
Many bar sections, boards and committees use list serves to facilitate communication between members. List serves allow participants to send an email and have it delivered to everyone subscribed to the list at the same time.
In the past, the bar used an outside vendor to maintain member list serves. In the next few months, however, all lists will be converted to an in-house platform maintained solely by the bar. The new lists will function the same as before, but will have new features, such as the ability to update your preferences through the OSB Member Dashboard (including the choice of which email address to use) and the flexibility to temporarily disable messages as needed.
Changing to an in-house system will save the bar time and money and also give members more control over how — and how often — you receive messages from the lists you are a member of. Full details and instructions will be sent via email as the changeover nears. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the bar’s list serves, visit www.osbar.org/mos/listserves/listserve_FAQ.html.
Free Online Training for eFiling Users
Free online training for Oregon eFiling will introduce users to the File & Serve workspace, navigation through the various tabs and menus, processes for entering, editing, removing and managing case and account information, and steps required for submitting and tracking case documents. Training options include a series of five online self-study classes (lasting from four to 12 minutes each) and a live webinar that requires preregistration.
Oregon attorneys who want to begin eFiling in circuit courts that currently offer File & Serve can access online training by going to www.tinyurl.com/OJDEfile Home and clicking on “Start Now” to arrive at the File & Serve portal. Self-study online training classes and webinar sessions are listed under the Train section. User guides and quick reference guides are available under the Learn section.
The Oregon Judicial Department’s Oregon eCourt Program continues steady progress in delivering eFiling and eService capabilities to Oregon attorneys. The most recent go-live of eFiling took place June 3 in Jackson County Circuit Court, increasing the number of courts with eFile services to five — including Yamhill, Crook, Jefferson and Linn circuit courts. Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook circuit courts will begin eFiling in October after implementation in August. A current Oregon eCourt rollout schedule can be seen on the Oregon eCourt website at www.tinyurl.com/OReCourtImplementation.
New Law Enacted on Mitigating Factors for Servicemembers
On June 6, the governor signed into law SB 124 (proposed by the bar’s Military and Veterans Law Section). This bill creates a new mitigating factor that explicitly authorizes courts at sentencing to consider military service as a mitigating factor. It does so by amending ORS 137.090(2) to state:
“(2) In determining mitigation, the court may consider evidence regarding the defendant’s status as a servicemember as defined in ORS 135.881.”
SB 124 carries both an emergency clause and a retroactivity clause. Consequently, it took effect on June 6 and applies to all cases not previously sentenced, regardless of their crime-commission dates.
For more information, contact Jess Barton at jessewmbarton@gmail.com.