Other Courts
Municipal, county, and justice
courts are "local" courts outside the state-funded court system.
Their jurisdiction is limited to violations, lesser crimes, and some other
less serious cases.
Here are links to general information
in the Oregon Bluebook on
The Oregon Justice of the Peace
Association has a website with additional information about Oregon justice
courts and answers to frequent questions: www.ojpa.org
Oregon also has a federal trial
court, federal bankruptcy court, federal appellate court, and trial and
appellate tribal courts.
For information on federal courts
in Oregon, go to the federal government's portal, FirstGov.
For information on tribal courts
in Oregon, go to the website for the Commission
on Indian Services.
Although the state court system
has no administrative control over local courts, state law requires the
State Court Administrator to establish a registry of municipal and justice
courts. Cities and counties must provide information about their courts
to the State Court Administrator.
In 2007, the legislature required
local courts that are now or will become "courts of record"
to file a declaration with the Supreme Court. They must also file a declaration
with the Supreme Court before ceasing to be a court of record. This
affects where to file appeals from judgments of those courts. We have
no set form for this declaration; see Senate
Bill 267 for requirements. To date, the following courts have
filed declarations to operate as courts of record:
- City of Beaverton Municipal Court
- City of Lake Oswego
- City of St. Helens Municipal Court
New legislation in 2005 eliminated
some filing fee surcharges in local courts and added a court security
assessment to fines in all state and local Oregon courts. The State
Court Administrator provides the following coupon for municipal, justice,
and county courts with judicial functions to use when remitting the remaining
filing fee surcharges and the added court security assessment for deposit.